OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE STATE OF

Volume 38, No. 5

COVERS FLYING HIGH 18 PUTTING ON THE DOG 40 A daring breed of Oklahoma aviators Fmrn glossy pompadoured poodles to flew from the oil fields into the record bumptious boxers, dog show books. competitors inhabit a world unto

WlLEY POST Brilliant pilot. American hem. Melancholy loner. may be one of Oklahoma's best-known and least understood sons.

PORTFOLIO 32 The bittersweet end of summer and Joan Stainer of Tulsa and a season of renewal. champion Suellen, one of the nation's top English Setters. Photograph by Ih- vid Koelsch. Inside front. Sydnie Brown is showered with cotton- wood leaves in Boiling Springs State Park. Pho- tograph by her dad, Larry D. Brown. Rack. Bril- liant fall foliage near Spa- vinaw. Photograph by Howard Robsofie PictureLVorks. DEPARTMENTS FEATURES Today in Oklahoma ...... 4 THE TRAIL Letters...... 5 The 225-mile-long Ouachita Trail, Uncommon Common Folk...... 6 which begins in southeastern Oklahoma, THE FIRST UDY'S BAZAAR 38 Fd:YcSehee Catfish Restaurant...... 8 leads hikers through a forest A homesteader's farmhouse shelters a Oklahoma Omnibus: Angk Debo...... I6 drenched in beauty and tradition. harvest of arts and crafts. Entertainment Cakndar...... 45

PUBLISHED BY THE OKLAHOMA TOURISM AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT

Sue Carter. Editor-in-Chief Tourism and Recreation Commission Okldoma TODAY (ISSN 0030-1892) is published bi- Si~sanBunney Tomlinson. Managing Editor Hugh Jones, (,%airman monthly in January, March, May. July. September and HillIStroud Design. Art Direction & Production Martin D. Garher. Vice Ouinnan November. Subscription prices: $12/yr. in l..S.; $Ib/yr. Thom Hunter. Marketing Larry Lindley, Serretuv outside. Barbara Palmer, Assistant Editor Eddie Fisher U.S.0 copyright 1988 by Okluhomu 7nDAYmagzine. hlelanie \fayberry. Subscription Services Susan Neal 401 Bldg., P.O. Box 53384, , Lisa Breckenridge. Events Calendar R.L. Rollins OK 73152. (405) 521-2496. George Walters Reproduction in whole or in part without permission 1,t. GOV.Robert S. Kerr 111. E.YOJYirio is prohibited. The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited material for editorial consideration. Glenn Sullivan, Executive Dir~ctur Printed at PennWell Printing, Tulsa. Michael L. 5loccia. Drpue Direrror Tom Creider, Pads -W Second-class postage paid at Oklahoma City. OR and Eugene Dilbeck. .NarRen'ng Setvices -- % additional entry offices. Postmaster: Send address d -- changes to Okluhoma TODAY Circulation. P.O. Box Kris Xiarek. Pfannin~ D~~efopment Tom Rich. Lodges 53384. Oklahoma City, OK 73152. -

September-October 1988 3

- A ------. s you surely know by now, Okla- Barbara Palmer writes about some of and why aviation is such an important Ahoma is throwing a giant party all the early-day itinerant barnstormers, state industry. year long during 1989. Festivals will be plucky predecessors for today's space Jean Devlin writes about what held throughout the state, but espe- pilots, along with their major contribu- Angie Debo's neighbors remember cially in , topped off tions to the aviation industry. "I found best about the state's most fimous his- with the U.S. Olympics Festival and the oral history tapes of these men just torian and their beloved friend, begin- its torch run to all 77 counties. Arts fascinating," Palmer said. The tapes, ning on page 16. Public television will festivals, a folklife festival, jazz festi- some recorded in the 1950s, are kept open its fall series on American history vals and Indian pow wows, horse rac- in the State Archives of the Oklahoma with a documentary entitled "Indians, ing, softball tournaments, rodeos, Historical Society. Outlaws and Angie Deb." Filmed by square dancing and bigger state fairs. If Wiley Post, one of the most famous Holdenville native Martha Sandlin, it's fun, it's happening in Oklahoma in of the early-day pilots, tested the pres- the Angie Debo show can be seen on 1989. surized flight suit and discovered the OETA in October. The cause for celebration, of course, jet stream. Clay Lewis tells Post's sto- *It was fun last fall to wander is the centennial anniversary of the ry. The cockpit of Post's biplane and through the booths under the large, '89er Land Run that started opening astronaut Tom Stafford's space suit can striped tents on the lawn of the Ham Oklahoma for settlement. be viewed with other aviation memora- Homestead in Oklahoma City. If you But what's a party without party- bilia at the Air Space Museum of Okla- enjoy the clever designs and the fine goers? You get to decide who you want homa City's Kirkpatrick Center. details of handmade crafts, you'll want to come. And Ok/ahoma TODAY will The State Museum, located in the to join the crowds in October at the mail official invitations next March to Wiley Post Building, displays a perma- annual First Lady's Bazaar. Ann De- all those living out-of-state who receive nent exhibit on Wiley Post's life. The Frange writes about some of the exhib- gift subscriptions, inviting them to museum also houses perhaps the most itors, beginning on page 38. come visit during 1989. Turn to page extensive collection available of Post's The Ouachita Trail, a hiking trail 37 for more information. papers and photos. dedicated by the U.S. Forest Service The series of historical articles fea- As you read about these early pilots, last year, begins in Talimena State turing the people and the activities of perhaps you can understand why so Park and winds 225 miles through the the Territorial Period begins in the many astronauts grew up in Oklahoma Ouachitas to Little Rock, Arkansas. January issue and the Special Centen- Senior citizens, young Conservation nial Souvenir Issue will be published Corps workers and forest service em- Next ISSU@:Join us for a Christmas ployees labored for more than years in March. This series should help lure celebration at Pryor's Home Rescue 10 your friends back for Oklahoma's big Mission and for a visit: with eight monks building the trail. A hiker can walk bash, ready to celebrate. What a great at the Holy Protection Monastery in along the isolated trail, surrounded by time for family and high school Forest Park. Then, for holiday revelers autumn leaves and mountain streams, reunions. who'd like to stretch their legs after a for five days and meet few others. *The 1989 ORIahoma TODAY sce- satisfying Thanksgiving or Chrismas Scott Carlberg writes about the people nic calendars are available with major meal, a couple of experts will offer tips who live along the trail on page 10. Centennial events listed on the back. for beginning birdwatchers. We'll also *Congratulations to all the OMo- Beneath each beautiful photograph is take you to southwest Oklahoma for ma TODAY Photo Contest winners. interesting information about our state David Halpern" photographic study of Some wonderful, imaginative photos the Wichica Mountains, And we're hap- that you will enjoy reading. And there were entered, and the judges had a py to announce the beginning of two is plenty of space for writing in your tough time choosing. Next year's pho- new departments-weekend trips and 1989 activities. See page 44 for the arts-that we hope will help you to contest also will focus on scenery ordering. enjoy Oklahoma even more. These sto- and activities in the state's parks. Win- Why do so many astronauts call ries and others in the November-De- ners are listed on page 36. Oklahoma home? At least eight grew cember issue of OREakom~TODAY. up as Sooners. Beginning on page 18, -Sue Carter

Oklahoma TODAY but also the content exemplified a l'hank ~OLIfor bringing Oklahoma LETTERS depth of research that surely exceeds to me u-it11 your magazine. the investigations of so-called national- JJ.M. Graus ly reputed writers. Further, it is obvi- 12laastricht, Netherlands I found out about Oil .Van, the ex- ous that Ms. DeFrange did not cellent account of the life and times of antagonize her subjects, which seems I was very pleased to read hthnn Frank Phillips and Phillips Petroleum to be the regrettable style of many Jenson \Vhiteas article about Sam Company, through my subscription to reporters today. Her obvio~lsaccep- Downs ("l'ncomnion (hnin~onI-olk," Oklahoma TODAY (a portion of tlie bi- tance by this publiciy-shy group of Ilarch-.April). Sam has been an excel- ography was excerpted in the hlay- people implies a discernible honesty lent good\+-ill ambassador for Oklalio- June issue). The only thing I don't like on her part that conles through in the ma for several years. I think it is so about the book is that it's interrupting statements of her subjects and to the important for people \tho care about my studies so much that I ha~enow delight of this reader. Her work, ac- Oklahoma and its histor! to share their decided to leabe Oi/.Vrm at niy office companied by excellent photography, knomledge and enthusiasm. particular- and read it only during lunch bre:lks, is a high standard that I hope your ly ~tiththe children of the state. lest 1 flunk this semester's courses be.- publication will seek to achieve 'I'h~lnksfor pro\ iding great reading. cause I Iiaken't been paying attention regtllarly. B.G. Schumacher Dixie Relcher to schoolwork. Tulsa Writer Michael \$'allis captured the Professor Emeritus, essence and flavor of Oklahoma at its [Jniversity of Oklahoma We are native Oklahomans who best, the Oklahoma I know and miss Oklahoma TODAY is welcome in my were transplanted to 'l'exas for 23 years so much. Previous to moving back family, and we are proud to ha\e 1011 by our jobs. \Ye haw moved back to a East, I lived in Oklahoma for 14 )-ears. each and every time. different area of Oklahoma. and it is so Though I wasn't born in the Sooner I liabe kisited your country only beautiful. Just look at 1,arry I). State, I've had a special place in my once, in 1986. All week \re stayed with Rrowrn's proof of this in your recent heart for Oklahoma ever since I can friends in Iluncan. Lee and Paul (hr- issue ("Portfolio" and back cover. remember. As a Brooklyn lad learning nelius-both vev proud of their coun- hlay-June). which sho\+s the plioto- the names of all the states in history t~-showed me around with unselfish graphs of Ciniarron (hunty. class, the sound Oklahoma conjured and heart-warming friendship. 'I'hey Please keep she\\ ing 11s the beau? images of cloaked bandits that scared showed me the hoqpitality and friend- around 11s. me half to death. Years later, after my ship )our state-I was told and now Fred and Rett\- Osbin family had the good fortune to be sta- know it-has a renutation for. Iientnn tioned at Tinker .Air Force Base, and I lingered on to pursue a college educa- 0kldlurrl;a 'I'ODAY wrrm w,ztzrtg uwuru tion, I realized I had been 110th wrong and right about my "visions." Outlaws nhebest writing it1 the countrv in southeastern Oklahoma. and bandits indeed comprised part of 1today is beinihone in region- Scott, a judge for this year's cot Oklahonla's colorful history, but my. a1 magazines, University of Missou- test, told RPA members from 33 exposure to the Sooner State also made ti School of Journalism professor magazines that Marsh's article was me realize the unmatched warmth and Byron Scott told members of the the finest piece he had read in friendliness of its people. To this day, Regional Magazine Publisher's As- years. Articles entered by lankee sacktion at rt recent meeting in and WmAington maga~inesplaced I wish I had been born in Oklahoma. I f \ a->L consider nil-self an Oklahonian, and . &&A,.&&s .-: second and third. I'm hoping someday to return to live in And the best story published in a Ok~oma7r)D.-LY also won, for Oklahonia and bring up a family there. regional magazine in 1987 was pub the third year in a row, the first lished in OkLdorwa 1'OD4Y, runner-up award for Best Travel Ray mond Rikera "Backroads and Blue High- Magazine in a national competitir Union Cit);, New Jersey ways,*" written by Ralph Marsh of sponsored by the Society of .hen I want to express my admiration for fleavener, and published in the can Travel Writers. Judges in tha the article about the Mennonite com- September-October 1987 issue, was contest ekaluated 806 entries fron. awarded First Place in the 169 individuals and publications. munity written t)y Ann DeFrange ("A Best Separate Peace," May-June). 'I'l~i\was Feanire Article competition. Marsh Okkzhoma 7Y)DD4Y,the?; said, " not only a carefully crafted piece that satisfies the fonii of e\cellent ~riting. Joe By Kathryn Jenson White

ousing starts may be down in most of Oklahoma, but in Muskogee one builder has about three years of construc- tion Iahead of him completing the homes he has promised to craft for others, as well as those he longs to do just to satisfy his own love of design and problem solving. Joe Farmer's houses are quite a bit shorter than the average ranch-style, but they often involve much taller or- ders of creativity, craftsmanship and time. "Ten of my 11 dollhouses I've built since I retired 11 years ago," he says. "Some take only two or three months; some longer. It took me eight months on the latest French Quarter house, working when I want to. I don't have anything crowding me. I've had four heart attacks, so I'm not an eight-to-., fiver anymore. If I want to go to the Joe's French Quarter rqlica has a crystal chandelier and electrin'p to path room. coffee joint, I close up shop and go. If I run into something I'm bored with, I chased by a family from New Jersey. reer for about 40 years in his positions just quit for a while." One of Joe's three daughters is the of lineman, installer, repairman and To avoid too much boredom, Joe proud owner of his first effort, which central office niaintenance man at has created a wide variety of house he put together for her Christmas pre- Southwestern Hell and in an earlier styles, including several variations on sent in 1943. stint as equipment and building main- antebellum mansions, two New Or- "It's sitting in the front hallwav of tenance man for a grocery operation. leans French Quarter houses, a mod- her house. I made it from orange crates "I've piddled around with just about ern solar home, a Baltimore townhouse and apple boxes, and it was small. everything." Joe says. "I made my and a three-story replica of a 1920 Ger- Couldn't have been too fancy, either, own toys when I was a kid. U7agons man dollhouse that cleverly doubles as since all I had was a pocket knife, a and cars, vou know. Wood always in- a Christmas tree base each December. keyhole saw and a hammer. That kind terested me the most. I grew up with He has also reproduced the histori- of limits you," Joe says. it. Might have been inbred from my cal Clayton House in Fort Smith, Ar- Today, Joe's one-man building op- grandfather, since he and most of my kansas. That lovely replica, which is 4 eration has many more sophisticated dad's brothers were carpenters." feet tall, 5 feet wide and 4 feet deep, tools than that, several of which the Joe's wonderful wood creations all came complete with ornate ginger- builder has built himself. have one primary goal: to provide chil- bread and a rolling base covered with Joe, who is 75, prepared for his cur- dren with a setting in which their fan- artificial turf. The house was pur- rent hobby-that's-almost-a-second-ca- tasy selves can romp freely without the

Oklahoma TODAY distractions of being careful not to finds in books and magazines. Often Then, I made Ida this paint roller out touch this or move that. his houses are combinations of parts of a sponge hair curler. A quarter-inch "I want to make it completely play- from several homes of similar architec- dowel just fits into the hole in it. I able for a child; my houses are built to tural style. drilled a hole in the ends of the dowel be used," he says with conviction. "I The one exception to date to the no- and fixed a coat hanger handle. We can stand on my French Quarter house plans approach is a house Joe built for a just put a little of the paint in a dish if I want to; it's solid, made of half- couple in Turner Falls. and roll it on over the top. If you don't inch plywood in the walls and floors. "They bought this set of house pressure it, you won't go into the joints I'd rather make my light fixtures than plans out of Pennsylvania to build a at all." buy them, too. Mine will stand up Joe has also designed wooden spiral longer. You can't hit those bought staircases, metal circular staircases, lights; vou'll tear them up. The front Joe's wood cre- stained glass windows. bay windows porch lantern on my French Quarter ations have one with roofs that come off so children can house is made of three-quarter-inch play with their dolls in the bay area, copper tubing. primary goal: to simulated decorative wrought iron rail- "My houses have one-quarter-inch allow children's ings and cleverly hinged walls so that a glass windows rather than the thin, house may be completely closed up plastic sheet in kits. I won't bother fantasy selves to when not in use and opened for plav or with a kit. I've had the opportunity to romp freely with- display from front andlor back when take over some that folks started, but I the owner desires. won't touch 'em. Most of them have out being careful "My next one is going to have a finished part of the house without the not to touch this turret top on it," he says thoughtfully. detail work and 1can't reach in there to "I've got it about halfwav figured out. finish it. I complete mine a floor at a or move that. J.C. Oliver, who helps me with the time. windows, is going to make a curved "Also, kit houses are fragile. They house from," he explains. "They window that will swing open so the don't last very long. If one of my couldn't tell anything about it from the children can reach in there and plav. It houses is properly taken care of, it will plans, though, so they asked me if I will be curved, leaded, clear glass and go through generations. There's not a could build them a dollhouse so they will sit right in the wall." dollhouse in this book I've got that will could see what it would really look Joe can't imagine not spending his match my craftsmanship. I'm braggin' like. They like it so much, they're time figuring things out. "I'd go stark I guess, but it's true." going to build it down there. It was a raving mad without my projects," he The detail and intricacy of Joe's solar-type house all in natural woods, a says. "That 01' one-eyed monster in work please the collector and minia- pretty little thing." there would beat you to death if you ture lover as well as the child; he plans That house has a garage door that didn't have work to do." for the latter to become the former as goes up and down, so Joe and Ida, his When Joe does relax, it's in a room he creates. wife of more than 50 years, scouted out he built on to his house and named "I size all my houses to work with a Corvette to sit in it as a perfect finish- "Zeke's Caboose." The story behind antique replica furniture," Joe says. "I ing touch. Ida, an artist and florist, the name tells a lot about Joe's sense of aim for that because as a child gets helps Joe with the decorating and com- humor and the love of tradition and older, into their teens, they'll want the pletion work on the houses. He makes durability to be found in all his house but want to refurnish it as a aluminum window boxes; she arranges dollhouses. showpiece. They'll buy the antique the miniature silk flowers in them. He "I call it my old man's mad room," replica furniture for it then." carves out the brick pattern for the he says. "My dad's name was Zeskie, Joe is careful about authenticity and walls of his homes; she paints them. and they called him Zeke. He was a artistic touches as well as durability The way the brickmaking process railroad man, and there's no more and long-term value for his homeown- has developed is a good example of the Farmers in our line. I'm the last of ers. He draws no plans, visualizing the way Joe delights in creating design and them; I'm Zeke's Caboose." completed house in his mind and then construction problems for himself, making that vision a reality by careful then figuring out ways to solve them. craftsmanship. He works from pic- "You experiment,'' he says. "You Hme a nomineefor "UncommonCommon tures, those he takes on vacation while say, 'There's got to be an easier way.' Foll'? Write to Kadrryn do Oklahoma scouting for possible houses to repli- For the bricks, I paint the whole wall TODAY, P.O. Box 53384, ORbhoma cate,those sent by friends or those he white and rub the paint into the joints. City, OK 73152.

September-October 1988 McGehee Ca@h Restaurant

By Barbara Palmer

udy McGehee is in the To reach McGeHee Catfish Restau- kindest thing anybody had to say about third generation to live on rant, would-be diners must make a fish was that it was "brain food." Rudy a Love County farm over- zagging four-and-a-half mile drive that was looking for a way to supplement looking the Red River, a demands faith in widely spaced signs. his farming income and catfish, he pastoral spread dappled with stands of When customers arrive, Rudy and his says, "were interesting." 100-year-old pecan trees. When Rudy wife, Enid, try to make sure they're Rudy developed first one, and then decided to open a catfish restaurant 16 glad they came. a string of catfish ponds, and opened a years ago, he didn't see any reason to Rudy got into the catfish business "fish-out" operation where local fisher- leave. I when marbled beef was king, and the 1 men came to hook his cereal-fed fish.

At heir mtaurant mIooRing he Red River vaIIq, Rudy and Enid M&ce serve mer 300 Ibs. of fnd cam cv~y&, PI# niou~taimv] fdfh,mhkm, hush puppies and reIt3. nkr secret to sums, Rtu& says, is top-quaIi6fnh and his rnotWs m;6s.

8 Oklahoma TODAY But catfish are smart, Rudy says, and fish altogether. Lately, as all fish have "Not that it's any great thing to they stopped biting. gained luster in the minds of consum- see," intejects Enid. When Rudy got the idea to open a ers, even Northerners are coming Rudy prides himself on being able family-style restaurant to sell his sur- around, Rudy says. to serve any customer within 15 min- plus fish, no one was very encourag- Enid keeps a guest book on a stand utes. "And we don't cook anything ing, not even Enid. "' If we don't in the main dining room, its function ahead of time either." make a go of this it will be a very seemingly to be to collect one superla- Rudy's method for cooking fish is expensive hay barn,' " Rudy remem- tive after another: "GREAT FISH," the same as it was the first night they bers Enid telling him as they started opened. There are only a few guide- construction. lines, but they're important. As it happened, the restaurant was a resounding success. Eight months af- The restaurant McGehee's Fried Catfish ter they opened for business, the serves unlimited McGehees added another dining Carefully wash catfish steaks and fil- room, but they have hardly changed quantities, be- lets in cold water. ("That's impor- anything else, except to keep serving cause "that's the tant," Enid says. "Get them real more and more fish. clean.") The McGehee catfish dinner is way I like to eat," Salt lightly and dip into yellow sewed family-style: a rounded platter Rudy says. cornmeal. of fried catfish steaks and fillets and Fry in deep peanut oil until golden french fries, bowls of spicy, shredded "Don't you?" brown. cole slaw, authentically lumpy hush puppies, plates of sliced onions and The McGehees have so much busi- lemon wedges and bowls of green-to- "out-of-sight!" "Best fish in the ness, or are so generous, they volun- mato relish. Northern Hemisphere." So an entry teer the name of another restaurant, Waiters leave diners tactfully alone flatly stating "Terrible," is an eye- Cosbv's Catfish Restaurant near Dis- for awhile, and reappear, offering to catcher. Reading backwards, the rest ney, for those unlucky enough to not bring more fish, more slaw, more fries, of the entry, "Name: Madonna, Ad- make it down south. Before Ron and more of everything. dress: Hollywood," confirms the com- Sue Cosby opened the restaurant, they The restaurant serves unlimited ment as a bit of teen hilarity. (Other drove to Marietta and studied the quantities, because "that's the way I entries written in the same style of McGehees' methods. Rudy and Enid like to eat," Rudy says. "Don't you? chubby handwriting favor rating the told them all they knew-almost. We try to be friendly." teenaged wait staff over the food.) "Well, we helped them up to a If customers want to eat a lot of Even adults don't resist the chance to point," says Rudy. "We didn't give Rudy's fish, he says that's his least be cute in Enid's book. The author of them our recipe for hushpuppies." worry. "It all evens out." an entry from Hawaii wrote: "Long L The McGehees say they don't have drive, but worth the trip." time to notice when a patron sets a "Fish has been good to us," Enid You'll fmd McCehee's by exk- new record for fish consumption, but says, good enough that Rudy bought ing 1-35 at the Mariem exit-and - sometimes it's painfully obvious. an airplane to fly from the grass airstrip uaveling west on S.H. 32. Sis "We have some go out of here, and he installed for customers. Enid likes will direct you to the re$ra\lmat, they're just a-hurtin'," Rudy says. to travel to Europe with Rudy when approximately 4.5 miles sautts -4 I The menu also offers steaks, a lega- she can get him away from the farm. ~t of 1-95. cy from the early years of the restau- Despite their success, the McGe- McGehee's all-ym-ca~-6-- rant. Even then, steaks were mostly hees have remained true to their un- fish dinner is $8.49, A ikbmed for the convenience of Northerners. pretentious roots. Iced tea is served in child's portion is $4.50. netes- . Yankees, Rudy says, had the notion red plastic glasses, and dinner comes in taurant is own fm 5 p.m. m 8 a proper person doesn't eat catfish, plastic bowls and chunky white plates. p.m. on weekdi~ys,and hrn 1 which they disdained as scavenger fish No matter how busy the restaurant p.m. w 930 p.m. on Saturday and feeding on the muck at the bottom of becomes, customers are always wel- Sunday. It is dosed on Wednm. : lakes and rivers. Rudy will agree that come to drop into the kitchen. "If dv* wild fish have a musky, gamey flavor, we've got a line of 50 people, we'll still Far more information, 41(405) but farm-fed catfish, raised on hand- let them go through the kitchen," 276-2751. fuls of soy-based pellets, are a different Rudy says.

September-October 1988

- - The secrets of the Ouachita Trail, the grade reaches 15 percent or more. the forest. The sun pierces through 225 miles of mountainous passageway "Rocks, they were a problem!" says once, twice, then bullies away the mist from Talimena State Park to Little Owen, while he sits upon an impres- to bake the mountainsides. A wool Rock, Arkansas, lie in its journey sive sandstone boulder skirted by the jacket morning makes way for a T-shirt through the forest and in the people trail. "There are lots of big rocks here afternoon. When the evening sun re- who built it and live along its path. and we had to move many of them. treats, the air takes on an electric snap No other trails like it exist in Okla- Pry them out. Rake back smaller rock of chilly breezes. homa; few in the country can compare to make a stable trail." Some days succumb to the fog. to it. The trail is open to anyone, yet it "Rock glaciers" left from the Ice Steamrollers of clouds race toward the is exclusive in that only those who Age cling to a few mountainsides. mountaintops, collide and moil over have walked it-for one mile or 225- Some people call them "rock rivers," them, spilling freely down the other can say they've been there. and the boulders are too big for people side, the way people scatter out the The fine thread of a trail weaving to move. The rock masses slowly creep door of a crowded theater. These are through the tough fabric of mountains downslope, and the glaciers' lack of days that hikers most appreciate arriv- seems all the tougher to the people ing at camp, where a fire steams away who built it. A.Z. Owen was the forest foggy moisture from blue jeans. supervisor for the Ouachita National Forty-six miles While trails have been in the Oua- Forest when trailbuilding began in chitas for years-the Choctaw Indians, 1971. Nearly 190 miles of the trail of the trail who came to the land in the 1830s, had wind through federal forest lands; the are in Oklahoma, trails that ran just below the crest of rest passes through one Oklahoma the hilltops so no one could see them state park-Talimena-and two Ar- and those miles approaching-few adventurers have kansas state parks-Queen Wilhelmi- follow rivers, taken time to savor the rewards of a na and Pinnacle Mountain. Crews of long trip on the Ouachita Trail. A hik- forest service employees, senior citi- traverse steep er can walk for five days and see few zens and young conservation corps slopes and crest other people. workers from eight districts in Arkan- An autumn hiker walks in an artist's sas and Oklahoma labored a decade the tops palette of colors. Across the valley, before the trail was finished.. They of mountains at mountains of orange frost-bitten trees built it from old logging roads and cen- look like huge piles of pumpkins. Indi- tury-old footpaths; much of the trail altitudes of vidual trees jump from the forest in an they carved from the land with their 3,000 feet. egocentric attempt to outshine their own hands. Forty-six miles of the trail peers. Single oak leaves snap with pale are in Oklahoma, and those miles fol- yellows, reds and greens. low rivers, traverse steep slopes and vegetation creates bald spots in the Even the names of the Ouachitas crest the tops of mountains at altitudes otherwise lush forest. brim with verbal color. The waters of of 3,000 feet. James Means' heart is close to this Pashabbe and Billy creeks feed the "The inspiration for the trail," says trail, too. He's a forestry technician for Kiamichi River, which flows into the Owen, now retired, "was to have a the U.S. Forest Service and has tough- Red River. Winding Stair Mountain way to follow the Ouachitas on foot in ened his hands on the boulders of the feels to the backpacker just like end- the same direction the mountains Ouachita Trail. "We've got pretty less stairways. Castle Rock, Emerald went: east to west. It was old people country here and you can't really see it and Deadman vistas conjure images of mostly that built the trail, along with just by driving through. There's no- majesty, color and treachery. some young people. The people where else like it in Oklahoma or any- The Ouachita Trail is more than a worked in crews of 10 and their big where near here. I feel like we have footpath-it encompasses the people challenge was to keep the grade." something to show off. The air's pure. and landscape on either side. People Perhaps this is the real meaning of There's cool mountain water. And ev- are an important facet to the character "making the grade," which is the an- ery season is special, even winter. In of the mountains, and they are as rug- gle the trail slants up or down a moun- wintertime, there'll be white on the ged and keen as the land. They have a tainside. A tilt of less than 8 percent is mountaintops, but you can hike in a hardiness of soul-a tough, communi- ideal-enough for water to run off the light jacket down in the protection of ty spirit. trail and enough to permit a reasonable the valleys." Gene Wilson, a Choctaw Presbyteri- up or down hiking pace. That's not Often, cool fog blankets the valleys, an preacher whose circuit of a dozen easy in the Ouachitas, and sometimes a fog that subdues even the noise of tiny churches crisscrosses the Ouachita

Oklahoma TODAY A.Z. Owen, mtimd forest supemisor, ovmm trailbuilding when it began in 1971. Goen and his crmls offamt setwire workm, senior citizens and kidr labored to keep the grades gentle on mid-America's east-wat trail. Says one ran.: "They made it for anyone who ran walk."

September-October 1988 13 Be Ouachitas' @ectam/alar scenery euohed fmm a geologic trafic accident that happened 200 milion yean ago. A co//ision bemeen continents now known as South America and Nod Amefica forced the edges of Arkansas and Ok/ahoma to fold upward to fonn a mountain range.

Trail, is like the mountains where he with the mountains," Nolan says. "I you've lived near them." preaches: tough, with a lot to give. He love them. Some people don't. People The region has been a gathering wanted to be a professional boxer, but come to the booth and say they're glad point for many people for many years, attended seminary instead so he could and the natural resources of the area return to southeastern Oklahoma to have been the focal points. An artesian give the people his rock solid faith. Rock glaciers well was the modest beginning to "The people here are close-knit, left from Choctaw City, now Heavener, in 1884, and they have close-knit, family when the land belonged to the Choc- churches," Wilson says. "In fact, the the Ice Age cling taw Nation. Later, homesteaders dot- property for the churches where I to a few moun- ted the mountains wherever they preach was given by families so we could find a spring. Cabin foundations, could build a place to worship. The tainsides. Some now being reclaimed by nature, can churches are known by the family that people call them still be seen in the hills. More people gave the land, such as Wilson's Acres." 6-6- 99 moved in for the lumber, especially Once people move here, they rock rivers, when the Frisco and Kansas City rail- choose to stay. A forest service ranger and the boulders roads came to town. Access brought came to Talihina 10 years ago for a commerce, and cattle became a local one-year assignment. He has the op- are too big industry. Lumber and cattle-along tion to transfer, but won't. for people with tourism-are still strong econom- Nolan Fox is also dedicated to the ic sources. Ouachitas. For 25 years, he owned a to move. The land has a rich history, but parts store in Talihina. Now retired from of the Ouachitas escape the clutches of shopkeeping, he works at the visitor to get off the mountain. They don't the calendar, especially when Gene information station at Oklahoma's end like heights. But I don't think you can Wilson stands behind the oak pulpit of of the Talimena Drive. "I identify travel far from the mountains once a white clapboard church. Simple pine

14 Oklahoma TODAY pews surround a pot-belly stove and when the chief of the U.S. Forest Ser- tament to the mountains and the work fice a picture of Jesus. vice dedicated the Ouachita Trail, a Oklahomans did to carve a footpath Sometimes, age is only obvious Washington official drove a handsome through them: when confronted with symbols of a metal~&dallion at "Mile 0 in Tali- : After the ceremony ended, the high-tech world. Last November, mena State Park. The marker is a tes- marker stayed with the land and be- came part of it. And the history re- mains here, too, as well as A.Z. Owen, Nolan Fox, Gene Wilson, the trail- builders and their love for the moun- tains. All are reasons for a pilgrimage on the Ouachita Trail. And it is a pil- grimage, indeed, a chance to become immersed in nature. And slowly, the spirit of the hills will seep into your heart the way nightfall seeps into Oua- chita valleys. la

Scott Carlhlives in Bartlm7le. Dm2 FifzgmM, who is based in Okkdoma Ciry, trwek wctensiveij on @otography cxtsi@mm&. His dim' book, Israel, will be p~bIishedt4k fall.

There

Tk OuaEAita Trail couhi be one of he #OSt ~fkfingrOUtRF thou$ 50~&a~tertl OkMoma. It begms in Talimena State Pad, smmi/a mt of Taldinaon U.S. 271, and crissrros~e~mountains in he Owdita National Forwt. 72e tMil end in Pinnac/e Mountain State Pad, 15 miles west of Ljttk Rock, Adamas. Alhou& most of tk trail is built on gentle gnades for average hikers, short pam of & trail may have an incbne of 15 or more perceflt. 72e mi/ b we// madd, but U.S. Fomt SkeDistntnct Ranger Ivan Cupp momtamL hiken carry maps wih t4m. For bng-aistance hikers, &4e troi/ passes nmr small communities, where mppbes can be rephided. Cupp especial& ahbes hiken to take water with them. Adat'lionaI infomation and free maps anavaibbk at Talimeflu State Pad and t4e Wat EdVbitor Information Starion on Tabmma DrEve, a mik northeast of the pad on U.S. 271, or by calbng PtWy@?dn pmcher meW1hon3 ckzpboord cAud near Whtte&m -wtth ia wooaBunaing he U.S. Forest Setvice at (918) 567-2326. stow, oak pu@ atid pine ptws-b one of more han a down on hb cimit in tk Ouadrtas. I I

September-October 1988 15 O M N I B U S v Miss Angie - By Jean Devlin

Angie Debo moved with her fami4 in a covered wagon from Kansas to Manhall, Oklahoma Tem'tory, in 1899. She was then a 9-year-oldgirl who loved books and learning, yet she lived in a land without a high school or library. Angie began teaching in mral schools when she was 16, although she had to wait until she was 23 to graduate fmm Manhall Hid Schoo/'s$nt senior class. She majored in history at the Univenity of Oklahoma, and earned a master's degree in 1924 at the Univenity of Chicago. Ange quickly learned that the history field at major univenities was 'Shut, locked and bared against women," but scholarly resead was not. Although one avenue of opportunity was closed to her, she soared up the other. Angie became Dr. Debo at OU in 1933, when she was 43 yean old, andherpublisheddissertation, The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic, won a pwstigoozls awarddeeming it the most important book in American history in 1934. Angie focused her raearch on Indian history and didn'tfearpzlblishing its ungracejulfacts: herpowe$ul 1940 mposi, And Still the Waters Run, which examined the comption of the liquidation ofthe Five Civilized Tribes, was so controvenial she withdrm it from the 0U Prm and pubfished it at Princeton. Her publishing rawer continued through the 1980s, and her credi~include 23 books and more than 120 articles. Throughout nine decades, with the acclaim and contmeny tht followed her, Angie kept her white frame home in the little town where she arrived in a covered wagon as a girl. Manhall, population 372, was big enough and good enough for the tiny woman whose fame spread worldwide.

hen Dr. Angie Debo died on Marshall where Angie Debo had lived books on Oklahoma, the plans for an Feb. 21, 1988, Ramona as a girl and again as a woman. Angie Debo room in the Edmon Low O'Neill cried. With all the attention that has been Library in Stillwater-it's easy for the wThis normally stoic Oklaho- o world to forget that behind ma farm wife didn't crv be- z;- the historian was simply a cause the nation had lost one woman. of its finest historians, which'1 it, Marshall. Oklahoma. had. Nor did she mourn be- doesn't have that problem. cause Oklahoma had lost a "To the people of Mar- woman who knew its most shall," explained Hugh sordid secrets and loved it O'Neill, who had known An- still, though that was true, gie Debo since he was a boy too. shuffling past her house on his Ramona O'Neill cried that way to school, "she lived Sunday morning for the same here. She was a good soul. reason the memory of Angie And, yes, she was a writer." Debo lingers with many Okla- Miss Angie, the townspeo- homans: An extraordinary ple called her. They gave her woman was gone. the name as much out of af- "My first thought when I fection because she taught heard she had died was that their children, attended their Charles Banks Wilson's portrait of An& Deh hangs in the Capitol. there would be no one left to churches and secretly helped tell me, 'Oh, Ramona, how beautiful lavished on Angie Debo in the last few when their pensions fell short as for you look.' years-the filming of a PBS documen- any awe in which they held her schol- "I miss her so," said Ramona tary on her life, the American Histori- arly achievements.

O'Neill, wiping away tears as she sat in cal Association award for her definitive " 'In Marshall, she's just Angie her kitchen in a cottage just a stone's research on the American Indian, the Debo,' " said Hugh O'Neill, quoting throw away from the white house in portrait in the state Capitol for her one of the town sons. "You get away

Oklahoma TODAY from Marshall, and she's a celebrity." On the sofa in his office, in the politics, history or social issues. That's one of the reasons Angie sprawling home just west of Marshall Her friends relished her dismissal of Debo lived in Marshall. where Angie Debo often took her holi- Richard Nixon as "the only evil person There she could putter in the gar- day meals, his wife stirred. "Angie who ever occupied the White House" den behind the white, single-story never tried to impress you, she never and shared her dislike of the slang in frame house her family had lived in for sought to get fame," said Mabel Bry- the third edition of Webster's Interna- most of a century. There she could son. "She would not dress better than tional Dictionary, but they also cher- tend to her roses, including the Arneri- everybody else, nor eat better, and se- ished her for the date nut bread she can Beauty climber that she was so cretly she helped people." made fresh in her kitchen and the way proud of. Angie Debo's quiet benevolence she would pad down the sidewalk In Marshall she didn't have to wor- was possible not because her writing when she had a book to share. ry about "Dr. Debo" being embar- and research had made her wealthy- The folks of Marshall returned the rassed should someone spot her in her they hadn't-but because she cared so affection Angie Debo gave them, but nightgown and robe impetuously driv- little about the trappings of life that that didn't always mean they under- ing to the edge of town in hopes of she always had extra to share. stood her. The women never believed catching sight of a midnight comet. "Her style of living was very simple her when at the age of 98 she was still There she had the quiet she needed and plain," recalled Ramona O'Neill. telling them she couldn't take their to write. "She was never the kind to wear flashy calls between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. be- And that's how her neighbors recall jewelry." cause she was working, said Mabel Angie Debo-a brilliant historian, yes, The only baubles Angie Debo col- Bryson, and the men could never quite but also a woman who for years started lected during her 98 years on earth comprehend why she was a member of each day in the middle of her yard, were a few pieces of turquoise jewelry the American Civil Liberties Union. armed with a butcher knife, deter- made by the Indians she loved to write Still, they loved her. And when old mined to extract every dandelion on about and a strand of amber beads age made it impossible for her to live her corner lot. bought on a trip to Moscow. alone, five Marshall women came for- The same dogged determination she Martha Sandlin, who was chosen to ward to work round the clock so that leveled at those tiny, yellow weeds, orchestrate the upcoming PBS docu- Miss Angie could stay in the home she said Hugh O'Neill, surfaced in her mentary, "Indians, Outlaws and Angie loved. work, where her hallmarks were her Debo," in part because its subject in- Angie Debo died with few regrets, attention to detail, her thoroughness. sisted on an Oklahoma director, no- her friends said. She didn't lament the "I remember an old historic marker ticed Miss Angie's gentle way with the husband and children she never had outside Mulhall," he recalled, "that people in Marshall. because it was always her choice to read 'hiulhall, Oklahoma Territory.' " "She remembered the status of their have her work instead. She loved chil- Angie Debo always thought that crops and their animals, and when they dren, said Ramona O'Neill, and Angie marker should be corrected. "It wasn't came to visit she would ask about Debo let it be known that her door was Oklahoma Territory then, not until them," marveled Martha Sandlin, who open if a local child had a question, 1890," Hugh O'Neill explained, "and though raised in Holdenville, now needed tutoring or just wanted to that sign always bothered Angie. lives in Brooklyn, New York. ' know a little more about something. That's how meticulous she was." During the five years she spent Much of her effort to tell the truth When it came time to erect an his- working on the documentary, Sandlin about Oklahoma's history was done toric marker to commemorate Mar- became convinced that "Angie Debo with children in mind and with a belief shall's birth, Angie Debo made sure was really a 19th-century woman ... in their right to look at the world and the slab of rock read: Marshall, Indian Her real affection was for local people, issues with the clarity that comes from Territory. which was interesting because she was having the naked truth. Truth gave her the greatest one of the state's only vocal critics." "My one goal," Angie Debo always pleasure. Most of all, however, the film direc- said, "was to discover the truth and "Angie never cared about money or tor recalled being bowled over by An- publish it." fame," said Ramond Bryson, a retired gie Debo's "girlish pleasure of simple things, like wildflowers." farmer who spends his days now seeing "Indians, Out/mx and Angie Deb0 " For Ramona O'Neill, too, Angie to it that the scraps of paper that con- will be aired during October on OETA. stitute his friend's will are followed to Debo was special as much for her the letter. "She wasn't concerned neighborly gestures and her almost about writing books. She was commit- childlike fascination with birds and Jean Decfin is the /fesr)l/eand am ed to telling the truth." sunsets as for her savvy opinions on editorfor the Stillwater NewsPress.

September-October 1988 Bolstered by oil money and steady nem, a generation of Okiahoma pilots soared. By Barbara Palmer

Anny pilots turned barnstonnm gave many Oklahomans, like Amy Tdorshmn fbing in 1918, thkrjrxt taste of air travel, CiCitms dmounced he barnstonnm' perr7ous stun&-wing-walking, lenping fim plane to plane-but t/rey came out by the hund~dsto watch. ike Icarus and a thousand and building planes in backyard shops. That same year, Clyde Cessna be- experimenters before him, One of the first Oklahoma-built air- gan to build and fly an airplane out in Arthur Oakley started out planes, 72e Albatross, a monoplane on the Great Salt long on desire, but short on powered by a 10 h.p. motorcycle en- Plains. Cessna had a local reputation as technology. gine, was designed by W.S. Blackburn a mechanical genius and worked in As a boy growing up in Indian Terri- and built in a Chickasha bicycle shop. Oklahoma as a threshing machine op- tory, Oakley dreamed of flying. First, Blackburn proudly put the airplane on erator, an automobile salesman and as he strapped homemade wings on his a prospector. After he saw a flying cir- bicycle and pedaled like fury down the cus in Oklahoma City, Cessna moved street, hoping to pick up enough air Oklahomans to New York to work in an aircraft speed to ascend. helped lead the factory in the Bronx. Two months lat- When that failed, Oakley enlisted er, he was back in the state, a short, gravity. He rounded up the neighbor- nation into the rumpled visionary, designing and test- hood spectators and they climbed with space age, shat- ing airplanes. the bicycle up the side of a small Cessna looked in Enid for investors mountain. With a shove from the top tering speed and to help him build and finance his of a 40-foot bluff, Oakley made his distance records. planes, but couldn't find anyone who first flight. was interested. Cessna moved to Oakley hadn't given much thought To do it, they Wichita, taking with him the future as to how he would control the winged leaned on two Cessna Aircraft Company. bicycle once it was aloft, he recalled in Cessna later told a fellow pilot that a 1956 interview more than 50 years abundant natural folks in Enid were interested in his later. "I thought I would just lean this resources: oil and plane-until he began to ask for mon- way and then the other when it was ey, said Keith Tolman, who is re- necessary." hardheadedness. searching the In his disappointingly brief journey, aviation. Oakley wasn't badly injured, but his "Aviators were heroes to the pub- bicycle was a twisted ruin. display, charging 25 cents for adults lic," Tolman said, but their seemingly "That flight lacked a lot from being and 10 cents for children, but found flimsy planes didn't look like the wave successful," Oakley ruminated. there were few spectators. A resident of the future. Led by men like Arthur Oakley, grumbled in a local newspaper, "If a The constant danger of cracking up who failed and kept trying, Oklahoma stranger had brought that same ma- in the experimental planes gave the bumped, crashed and skidded its way chine here from New York or Paris and early "birdmen" a mythical, eccentric into aviation in the early part of the placed it on exhibition, it would have status, Tolman said. Oklahomans century. required a dozen or so policemen to flocked to see exhibition fliers like Cal In just a few years, Oklahomans keep the crowds from stampeding it. I Rodgers, who stopped in Oklahoma in would help push the way into the can't understand why the people of 1911 on his way across the country (in space age, shattering speed and dis- Chickasha are uninterested in this 49 days with 39 crashes). tance records. To do it, Oklahoma avi- product." "They were amusing, but their ators leaned heavily on two of the Blackburn leased his plane to an planes weren't of state's most abundant natural re- out-of-state pilot, Lestere Miller, who much practical sources: oil and hardheadedness. tested the craft briefly, . value." Tolman r then loaded it onto A said. a train bound for A San Antonio. After Orville ana wilDur Wright A made the first successful sustained A flight in North Carolina in 1903, news T traveled slowly. In 1911, eight years after the Wright ' brothers' flight, only a dozen firms were manufacturing airplanes in the United States. Hundreds of mechanics and inventors, though, were designing I_',"Code FIug Curd$frnm the eur/v '4k.

September-October 1988 Soaring over tk Great Sa/t Pkaim in 1911, Clyde Cessna ar/mcttr; emf in his flying mmhines-unti/ he &an to ask for money.

When the United States entered the Benjamin Foulois, was stationed at easy," an early pilot said. war, it lagged far behind Germany, Post Field where he commanded six Even pilots who had other jobs liked France and England in airplane tech- Jennies. Under orders, Foulois had the barnstorming life. After he left the nology and production. The federal taught himself to fly a Wright biplane Army Air Corps, World War I flier government concentrated most of its using a correspondence course from Clarence Page took a job in Okmul- effort and money into building trainer the Wrights. A school training pilots for gee, selling fire-proof safes in oil fields. airplanes, mostly Curtiss-designed JN- observation planes and balloons was While he was out calling on customers 4s, nicknamed "Jennies." The trainers formed at Fort Sill's Post Field in during the week, Page was also look- had 90 h.p. engines, wooden frames 1917. ing for towns of a certain size, small and linen-covered wings. Joe Bartles, Army flight instruction, even in the enough so that flying would attract at- an oilman and the son of the man for early 1920s, was "pretty meager," said tention, but big enough to provide whom Bartlesville is named, founded Jimmy Mattern, a pilot who lived in long lines of customers. an airplane company in Dewey li- Oklahoma and Texas and competed On Saturdays Page returned with censed to build the planes. with Wiley Post in the 1930s. "If you friends and found a level cow pasture In the early months of the war, mili- made it, you were a pilot. If you didn't owned by a farmer willing to trade an tary strategists argued that the best use make it, you were dead." airplane ride for the use of the field for of airplanes would be to photograph After the war, thousands of biplanes an afternoon. enemy troops and to make maps. manufactured for training pilots were Page and his friends kept their dig- The bonds between pilots, even sold as surplus, equipping a generation nity while promoting themselves. those fighting against each other, were of barnstormers. Young pilots pooled Their method for attracting business strong at first. Soldiers flying back and their money for a share in a Jenny, and was to buzz over the town and then go forth behind enemy lines waved to one hopped from town to town, wing-walk- for lunch at a local hamburger stand another from their cockpits. As the war ing, ferrying breathless passengers and wearing the full regalia of airmen- intensified, pilots began to carry pistols parachute jumping. goggles, helmets and heavy jackets. and rifles to shoot at one another. Before the war the average price of They depended on the fly-over, com- Only one Oklahoman, William an airplane was $7,500. War surplus bined with their dashing appearance, Thomas Ponder of Mangum, became planes sold for a few hundred dollars. to bring customers to them. a flying ace during the war, shooting Joe Bartles' Dewey airplane plant fold- Page and his friends shunned stunt down more than five enemy airplanes. ed almost immediately. flying; "It scared the horses." Instead, Ponder enlisted in the French Army in A post-war depression made the un- they sold turns around town, $5 per 1916 and transferred to the U.S. Army certain life of itinerant flying look good person. This brand of barnstorming, in 1918. to many Oklahomans. "Choosing be- while level-headed, wasn't particularly The Army's first air commander, Lt. tween coal mining and flying was profitable. They generally earned just

20 Oklahoma TODAY A Dtwq factory buih WW I trainen. of wood, wire and cloth. For the war @oft, automaken connibuted a brand-ntw idea-& assemb/y line. enough money to pay for gas, repairs smoothly, Oakley recalled. The crowd's renewed interest was re- and hamburgers. In the air, grit and One time when Askew flew over- warded when the plane came in, spin- sand flew continually in the pilots' head, planning to pluck Oakley from a ning into a cloud of dust. faces and flying was cold and noisy. racing automobile, Askew miscalculat- After a while, the barnstorming life The engine oil that flew up onto the ed, struck the back of the car and failed to sustain most pilots, financially wings had to continually be wiped crashed the plane. By the time Oakley or otherwise. "It got to be just one away with rags. got out of the car and raced to the more thing," said Oakley. Page, now 91, made millions after plane, Askew had propped his straw Slowly, the barnstormers began to World War I1 selling reconditioned air- boater on the back of his head and settle down. Oakley got married and plane engines and founded the Air stretched his legs out over the airplane retired from stunting. Some barn- Space Museum in Oklahoma City. cockpit as calmly as if he were watch- stormers went West and found work in Barnstorming, he said, was the most ing a game of checkers. Los Angeles, flying in motion pictures. fun he'd ever had in his life. Oakley had a gift for showy touches, Some got jobs flying for oil companies. Arthur Oakley, on the other hand, like flying with a pet monkey who Some, like Jimmy Mattern, flew in was a true stunt pilot, and some said, a rode on the airplane struts and peered Hollywood for awhile and then came damned fool. Oakley learned to fly over the propeller. A good manager, he back to jobs flying in the oil fields. during World War I and became a mas- said, cooked up banner headlines Oakley's train stunt became a part of ter airplane mechanic in Minnesota. In promising "Death Rides with Oak- a film, Go and Get it, but he turned 1919, he returned to Ardmore and ley." Implied disaster was an impor- down offers to move to Hollywood per- built an airplane out of surplus parts. tant ingredient in successful Oakley and a partner, Dorsey Askew, exhibitions. "If you don't promise began traveling throughout Oklahoma, to kill somebody people won't Texas, Kansas and New Mexico, fly- come out to see it." ing for exhibitions. If things went too well In one of Oakley's best-remem- and death began to slip bered stunts, he climbed on top of a into the back of people' moving passenger train and did a hand- minds, Oakley had a stand. As the train chugged along, proven trick to regain Askew piloted the plane overhead, their attention: He dangling a rope ladder. Oakley caught loosened the nuts on the ladder and climbed up into the one of the plane's wheels, so cockpit of the plane. However, such that on takeoff it would drop dramati- and leather helmet audacious stunts didn't always go cally, bouncing crazily on the field. from Wodd War II.

September-October 1988 21 manently. "He didn't think he could tolerate living in a city," said his wife, Mahota Nichols Oakley. Oakley settled in Ardmore, flying planes out of a wooden hanger north of town. Most airports were mom-and- pop operations, which like Oakley's, offered flying services, repairs and maintenance and flying lessons. One of Oakley's students was a farm boy named Wiley Post. "Quick- est pupil I ever had." In the 1920s rural airstrips were lightly established on the landscape. Planes landed on grassy fields choked with wildflowers and risked tangling with windmills on takeoff. Weather forecasting was sketchy at best. "You'd stick your head out the door, and if it looked kind of good, you'd go on," Oakley said. Planes had few navigational instru- Everyone had a lot to learn about aviation in the 1PZOs, inchdng the military. Here, a sokfier ments, and pilots flew using road maps idennjied as Sergeant Wells practices winpalking at Fort Sill in 1922. given out by gas stations, or by the "iron compass," railroad tracks. unreachable after spring rains. Air- Honolulu. To promote a newly devel- Pilots jokingly referred to an Okla- planes also gave businesses an edge oped aviation gasoline, "Nu-Aviation," homa City airport at Southwest 59th over the competition. F.C. Hall, the Frank Phillips sponsored two Oklaho- and Shields as the first"lightedH airport oilman who employed Wiley Post and ma flying teams in the Dole Race, in the state. Night landings took ad- staked his first record-setting flight both flying Beech Travelair planes. vantage of headlights of the Interurban around the world, reportedly hired Bennett Griffin and A1 Henley, in The Trolley as it traveled between Norman Post after he lost a deal to a faster, Oklahoma, turned back early in the and Oklahoma City. airborne competitor. race when their engine overheated. Oakley soon realized "aviation In 1927, after , a But Be Woolaroc, piloted by Art Goe- wasn't a one-man deal." When Lloyd former airmail pilot, made the first solo be1 and Bill Davis, won the race. Noble, an Ardmore oilman, offered non-stop flight from New York to Par- Phillips' victory was marred, how- Oakley a job as his pilot, Oakley joy- is, "the world went nuts over avia- ever, when 10 people died, either dur- fully accepted it. tion," Tolman said. Air travel boomed. ing the race or afterwards, searching for In the oil business, aviators found a In 1929 there were 2,678 pilots in the downed planes. It was rumored, too, way to fly and get regular pay, and in United States. By 1931 that number that Goebel had secretly switched out aviation, oilmen found a way to solve had jumped to 15,208. the Phillips' gasoline the night before, some of their problems and present a More aviators were competing to fly because he didn't trust the product, flashy image as well. farther and faster. Businessmen who although the rumor was never subtan- Traveling by air was still considered took note of the immense publicity of tiated, Tolman said. risky, but oilmen liked risks. In the Lindbergh's flight were eager to help The next year, Erle Halliburton, the 1920s, air travel was the province of them. In Oklahoma, oilmen who al- founder of an oil field services compa- movie stars and celebrities, company ready had pilots on their payrolls were ny, sponsored 73e Taker in a transconti- which oilmen found gratifying to their doubly eager to support aviation, said , nental air race. Oklahoma pilot Bob egos. Tolman. They saw a new market for Cantwell flew Halliburton, his brother The bottom line, however, was that aviation fuel developing right before John and a horned toad mascot to vic- in good times oil companies could their eyes. tory in nine hours and 11 minutes. more than recoup their investments in In 1927, James Dole, the Hawaii In Tulsa that year the Skelly Oil pilots and airplanes. pineapple tycoon, offered $35,000 to Company bought out the Mid-Conti- Airplanes flew critical parts into re- the first and second pilots to cross the nent Aircraft Company and began to mote drilling sites that were all but Pacific Ocean from North America to produce airplanes and parts. In the ear-

22 Oklahoma TODAY ly 1930s, a husband and wife team, Boosted by a tail wind from a storm Jimmy and Mae Haizlip, were famed following them across the Atlantic, instructors for the Spartan School of Mattern and Griffin reached Berlin in Aeronautics, a subsidiary of Skelly Oil. record time. After a nap, they took off The Haizlips both set new speed re- again but were forced down when their cords in the . cabin hatch blew off and damaged the In 1931, flying a plane provided by tail. Mattern landed the plane in what Hall, Wiley Post and looked like an Oklahoma wheatfield, shattered the standing record for trav- but tumed out to be a Russian peat eling around the world: eight days, 15 bog. Once the plane stopped rolling hours and 51 minutes. forward, its wheels began to sink and Back in Ardmore, Oakley told the the plane nosed over. The plane was local newspapers that he was proud of damaged beyond repair, and Mattem Post, but wished Post "would cut it and Griffin sold it to the Russian gov- out," fearing that he would be killed. ernment for $15,000-which they Ironically, Oakley, the former stunt pi- never got. lot, later had the reputation as a safety They did get their bonus, Page said, fanatic. but missed out on about $25,000 in The next year, Oklahoma pilot Ben- prize money and endorsements. nett Griffin and Jimmy Mattern set out That same year, on a decidedly to topple the Post-Gatty record. Mat- smaller scale, Tom Allen, a mechanic tern and Griffin were both broke and and pilot from Oklahoma City, and unemployed, but Mattern owned a pilot J. Herbert Banning from Los An- Lockheed-Vega airplane, given to him geles, raced to become the first black by a Texas oilman in lieu of back pilots to cross the United States. wages. As a boy, Allen rode his bicycle to Clarence Page helped promote the Bob Tarbutton's northeast Oklahoma flight by creating a prospectus outlin- City airfield nearly every day. Allen ing the publicity and endorsements didn't have the money for flying les- that could be reaped. It was written, sons, but he and Tarbutton worked Mattern said, "in lingo those oil men out a trade. Allen worked eight hours a can understand." In New York, Page day with the mechanics, and Tarbut- also agreed to sell the story to an agent ton taught Allen to fly "20 minutes at a for Universal News Services. Their time." Allen also threw his saxophone schedule of fees included a $2,500 bo- in on the deal. Antiur OakZqv, Ardtnor~'s/egenu'uq stunt nus for being reported missing. Mat- In 1929, Allen traveled to Los Ange- pilot, /rad an imperrub/eflying retard. tern and Griffin set out in The Centuv les to take a job as a mechanic for a of Pmgms on black flying club. A week after he ar- plane would disappear. July 4, 1932. A rived, the stock market crashed Allen read a ston. about a New York and Allen was out of work. newspaper offering $1.000 to the first Allen found a job blowing black pilot to flv cross-country. Allen L glass for milk bottles at Lock- and Banning bought all the parts so the CI heed Aircraft Company and airplane belonged wholly to them, and he began to save money on September 19, 1932, with $25 and a to buy a plane. tank of gas, they left Los Angeles for Allen kept in touch New York. 1 with members of the flying The pair were dead broke by the club, and together the pilots time they reached Tucson, Allen re- Clock built an airplane out of salvaged membered. Figuring they were too from the parts. The club's members had a close to home to wire back to friends 1932 Mattm-\ difficult time keeping the airplane for more money, Allen pawned an ex- in flying condition, Allen said, tra suit of clothes. That money got Gnpnfligt. F TED WEST1 because when members squabbled, them to El Paso. Allen and Banning AIR SPACE MUSEUM the variously owned parts of the crossed Texas, passing the hat wherev-

September-October 1988 homemade plane, finally lost his long- running battle to license his plane. Young regulators angered Arthur Oak- ley by requiring him to teach aerial manuevers they themselves couldn't demonstrate. In 1935, when Wiley Post and Will Rogers died in a crash off Point Barrow in , it signaled the end of an era. The days when a poor farm boy could fly out of nowhere and astonish the world were drawing to a close. I In the future, private companies

I could no longer afford to build planes that could compete with high-perfor- mance military planes. Oklahoma avia- tors like Bennett Griffin were turning from flying to administrative jobs. The progress Oklahoma made dur- 1 ing the 1920s and 1930s would help position the state for military plums like Tinker Air Force Base and the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City. It established a pool ~, of skilled labor that helped to train Jimmy Manern, l@, ana tlenneft G'nffm crasltea m KUSSta rtylng ro oesr wrrq rosr. ' workers for huge aircraft factories and training centers during World War 11. er they landed, raising enough cash to Allen and Banning returned deject- Today, the aerospace industry is the buy gas to hop over to the next town. edly to . The next February third largest in the state. In Oklahoma, W.G. Skelly read Banning was killed as a passenger in a As Arthur Oakley had predicted, about the trip and authorized airport West Coast flight. Allen lost the heart aviation was no longer a one-man deal. managers across the Midwest to supply to fly for a time and took a job as a In the 1950s, the Ardmore pilot was the pilots with gasoline, oil and repairs mechanic in an aircraft company. He permanently disabled by a stroke. In and to send the bills to him. worked for aircraft companies on the 1956, seven years before his death, The pair were slowed down in Pitts- West Coast for the next three decades Oakley taped an interview for the state burg, where they bought parts at a and returned to Oklahoma in the history archives, recalling the early salvage yard for the 15-year-old plane. 1960s. Today, Allen works at the Air days of aviation. Long moments hung They traveled the last leg to New York Space Museum in Oklahoma City, between questions and Oakley's an- with relative ease; in exchange for alongside newspaper photographs de- swers. money for gas and groceries, the pair picting his 1932 flight. Near the end of the interview, Oak- dropped campaign leaflets for a Demo- In Oklahoma in the 1930s, the De- ley's voice gains strength. For a mo- cratic presidential candidate, Franklin pression and other changes were cloud- ment, Oakley's thoughts are entwined Roosevelt. ing the opportunities of many in the future, not in the past. His Banning and Allen flew into New self-made pilots. words convey the spirit of the men and York victoriously, and attended a jubi- Oil companies no longer had the women who were pioneer aviators. lant celebration in Harlem the night funds to sponsor air races and attempts "Someday," he said slowly. "I want they arrived. The next morning, Ban- at record-setting flights. Federal bu- to fly a jet." ning and Allen went down to the reaucrats were laboring to fully regu- newspaper office to collect their prize late the industry. As roads and After meading ear/y-&y aviation, money. Bad times had gotten there telephone lines connected even the Oklahoma TODAY'S Barbara Palmer before them. most rural areas, few unlicensed pilots lost the abili~to nap on airplanes. "We're sorry to inform you the man and planes escaped notice. James Johnson, the aviation writer for offering the prize skipped town a few Heinie Bornhoff, a Calumet wheat The Daily Oklahoman, contributed days ago," the editor told Allen. farmer who taught himself to fly in a to the resea~hfor this article.

Oklahoma TODAY The Air Space Mnsezcm

long the east end of the exhibition floor at the Air Space $j A Museum at the Kirkpatrick Center in Oklahoma City, a 2 walk along orderly rows of aircraft engines offers a condensed $ history of aviation technology. The earliest engines rotated on a fixed crankshaft like giant eggbeaters; the propeller turned with each revolution of the engine. Later, designers added power by adding cylinders, producing bulky, intricate engines mechanics nicknamed "knuckle-busters." As bullet-shaped jet propulsion engines appear, propellers disappear. Beyond a 10-foot jet engine lies an inky rocket booster engine, like one of the five that launched Satum V into space. P Looking up at the simple lines of the booster, it's possible to still see the early engines, now small and fussy-looking by comparison. In 1915, before the United States even began pro- ducing World War I aircraft, the mathematical equations that supported rocket travel had been devised. Eveqwhere in the museum, the past and the future collide. In the 1970s, businessman Clarence Page, formerly a World War 1pilot and barnstormer, proposed that a museum be created to honor pioneer Oklahoma aviators who were "sleeping but not recognized." His original concept of the museum expanded to include space travel and the aerospace industry. This year, the management of the museum has passed from Page, now 91 and in poor health, to the Kirkpatrick Center. But a feeling of proximity to early aviation and to its colorful pioneers Chris Martin and EkbetJ Johnson study an elementary mket. still hangs over the museum. Historical exhibits dominate the first room, chronicling the Oklahoma, with photographs and histories of wartime aircraft years between the first airplane flight in Oklahoma in 1910 and production at McDonnell Douglas, the Spartan School of Aero- World War 11. Military memorabilia abounds, documenting the nautics in Tulsa, and the Federal Aviation Administration. The role war played in the development of aviation. Anthony Fokker, newest exhibit is a facsimile cockpit of the AWACS (Airborne a Dutch engineer, revolutionized warfare during World War 1 Warning and Control System) aircraft maintained at Tinker Air when he synchronized an airplane engine with a machine gun, Force Base in Midwest City. eliminating the problem of bullets hitting the propeller. Each weekday, Torn Allen, half of a team who were the first Old photographs document the past in a way that words can't. black men to fly across the United States, comes in to help A picture of the legendary stunt flyer Burrell Tibbs shows a schoolchildren clamber into World War I1 LINK trainers used to paunchy, tired-looking man. Charles Lindbergh poses with teach instrument flying. From the trainers, children crowd into a members of a Woodward farm family after his plane was forced display of the Challenger cockpit and an Apollo simulator. down there in 1932. Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, smile confi- Allen shows a visitor the stark interior of Wiley Post's biplane: dently into the camera. The other faces look awestruck. a stick on the floor and two rudder pedals that controlled the Air travel flows into space travel on the first floor. Two space wing flaps. suits donated by astronaut Tom Stafford, from Weatherford, are "Post truly became part of the machine," Allen says. Early displayed, descendants of the pressurized suit Wiley Post helped pilots flew without the modem buffers of instruments and com- develop in the 1930s. A space capsule used for training Mercury puters, alone against the vagaries of the elements. astronauts and a model of a lunar lander contrast with a replica of A nearby exhibit honoring the seven Challenger astronauts a 1913 pusher plane. who died in January 1986 illustrates how much has changed since Upstairs in the research library, Arthur Oakley's scrapbooks then, and how little. -Barbara Palmer bulge with fraying newspaper clippings describing aerial circuses and obituaries of stunt fliers, less skilled or less lucky than 771e Air Space Museum, at he Kidpatrick Center, 21DO N.E. 52nd Oakley. Fragile flying magazines date back to 1913 when flying Street, in OkMoma City, is open ID a.m. to 5p.m., Monday thmugb was so rare every flight made anywhere was noted, like the Safurdq, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundq. Admission is Mfor aduh names of visiting relatives in a small-town paper. and$L'.W for chldnn and senior cirzens. For infonnation call (405) Second-floor exhibits trace the growth of aviation industy in 424-1443.

-- ..------September-October 1988 25 Nothing colcld step this one-eyed fam boy from fbing-not povew, not disappointment, not evm the shadow of an old secret. By Clay Lewis

est of Wewoka on a structions. Only yesterday he was He dropped and with a jerk the para- spring afternoon in 1924, working on an oil rig near Holdenville. chute bloomed. The fields below townspeople and oil When he sighted overhead one of "looked like brown or green carpets ... roughnecks- gathered in a Tibbs' Flying Circus airplanes, he de- I drifted earthward .. . and lost the last wpasture to watch Burrell ~ibbs'Texas cided there and then to follow his few feet of altitude slowly because of Topnotch Fliers. His regular parachute dream of 11 years-to take the plunge the cool eddies of air from the damp, jumper was banged up, so Tibbs said into aviation. plowed meadow beyond." okay to a stocky 25-year-old roughneck "Suddenly I recovered myself," he It was "one of the biggest thrills ot who wanted the job. This oil field later wrote, "and I threw my leg out my life," he wrote much later. worker had loved aviation since he first over the wing." On that 1924 afternoon m'iley Post set eyes on an "aeroplane" in 1913. Holding tight to the vertical strut, began the aviation career which took But only once, in 1919, had he flown. wind beating his clothes, he crawled him, in the short span of 11 years, from Parachutes he knew nothing about. along the wing. With his free hand he Wewoka, Oklahoma, to tumultuous As he climbed into the front seat of buckled the harness to the vertical tickertape parades in New York City, the biwing Canuck, he got instructions strut. As directed, he went to his heroes' welcomes all over the U.S. and from the injured jumper. Burrell Tibbs knees. personal receptions at the White would fly. Out of the rough pasture Tibbs flew back over the pasture. House bv Presidents Hoover and Roo- they wobbled into the air, climbed to "I let go the strut and backed off the sevelt. His scientific achievements 2,000 feet, and turned over the waiting wing," he later wrote. For several sec- contributed significantly to the ad- crowd. "Okay, get ready!" Tibbs onds he swung helplessly from the har- vancement of aviation. And that same yelled. ness beneath the wing-then afternoon Post also set a course that The roughneck had forgotten his in- remembered to pull the release ring. ended in 1935 with the plane crash

26 Oklahoma TODAY Pact mas an m* to most doknew him, umqy d fame and scMom co@nt.

27 near Point Barrow. Alaska, that killed him and his close friend, LVill Rogers.

Post saw his first airplane, a pusher- type similar to the Wright Brothers', at a 1913 fair at Lawton. The fair cele- brated the 12th anniversary of the opening of the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache lands. Featured with the plane were the Moss-Snyder Wild West Show and "old fashioned Indian war- fare" put on by 4,000 Indians. Record- ing these collisions of America's past and future was the new motion picture camera. At that time Post, age 14, was living with his family on a cotton farm near Marlow. Discontented in school, Post had quit to earn a living as a tinker repairing sewing machines and fixing In their f 931 mund-the-wor/dfkdt, Post and Ham/d Gany meed rhclock to shave I2 days of other household and farm machinery. the pmious reford. They also battled bedbug, sleeplessness, mud and a bent pmpe//er. In a buggy he and his brother drove through the night to the fair. With the the stunts it could manage, Post was governor to parole him. Fourteen horse cared for he was heading for the disappointed. Five-foot-five, 21 years months after being locked up, Post new plows and tractors when, "'There old, this oil drilling son of a cotton was free on June 5, 1922. before my astonished vision was an farmer gained no great powers through aeroplane." The moment transformed flight. Post and his dream were being Post: "I have never seen a bit of ma- tested. chine~for land, sea or sky that has His severest test occurred in 1921- When he jumped for the first time taken my breath away as did that old 22. According to information collected in Wewoka that spring afternoon in pusher." He was in love with avjation by Sharon Cooper Calhoun, Wiley 1924, Post was no kid. Already he had for the rest of his life. Post near Alex attempted to rob sever- overcome personal adversity, reached Through training as a mechanic, al men who then overpowered him. deep understanding of himself and construction jobs and Signal Corps Reportedly he wanted the money for tested his dream. Telegraphers School during World War the purchase of his own airplane. On He worked as an exhibition para- I, Post clung to his dream of becoming April 28, 1921, in Grady County chute jumper in Oklahoma fro& 1924 an aviator. To gain the wherewitpal to Court, Post was convicted of conjoint to 1926, first with Tibbs, then on his buy his own plane and learn tC, fly, robbery and sentenced to 10 years in own at $100 a jump. He provided the Post became a $25 per day driller in the state penitentiary at Granite. On spectacle that a Chamber of Com- the oil fields of southwestern Oklaho- the plains of , merce or Rotary Club needed to pull a ma. He speculated in wildcat wells. Granite is an imposing, rock, high- Saturday crowd into town. His self- But whenever he approached his walled prison set in the midst of huge understanding gave him insight into dream, he lost his savings and had to spaces of land and sky. From a proud crowd psychology. He knew that the remain a driller. Baptist family, an aspiring aviator who "spectators of airplane manuevers were In 1919 he did actually fly. At Wal- had but once flown, Post, age 23, just a bloodthirsty mob that enjoyed ters he paid a barnstormer $25 to take could scarcely have been placed in a watching men get killed." But he him up over the checkerboard plains of more excruciating predicament. He could use this bloodthirstiness to his grazing lands and wheatfields. At this sank into a "melancholic state," ac- advantage: he did delayed drops, wait- time Post's view of pilots came from cording to his parole, and his condition ing until the last instant before pulling popular magazines and was highly ro- grew steadily worse. Post may have the ripcord. "My grin on landing, after manticized. Although the barnstormer been near death when the prison phy- giving the sidelines a thrill, was not put the old pusher-plane through all sician, Dr. T.J. Nunnery, asked the one of pleasure. It was one of victory. I

28 Oklahoma TODAY had fooled them," he later wrote in Around the WorM in Eidt Days. During these years Post learned to fly. In what is now a cow pasture be- tween Wewoka and Seminole, he probably soloed for the first time. He was no longer the enthralled boy of the Lawton fair nor the disillusioned ro- mantic young man of his first flight at Walters. His love of flying had been honed-down to a daring, razor-sharp practicality. By 1926 barnstorming had exhaust- ed its initial appeal and Post, with only a few hours of solo flying, encountered another adversity: he couldn't make a living barnstorming. "Much as I dis- like to admit defeat," he wrote, "I went back to drilling." The pursuit of his dream had landed him back in the Oklahoma oil fields. And on his first day, at a well south of Wewoka, he was struck in the left Flying at high a/tituda in a pmsun'zed suit, the forenmner of the modem spare suit, Post was eye by a steel splinter. His eye had to the fint to ride the river of wind blowing miles above the eatth -the jet strzam. be removed. Along with his other diffi- culties, Post was now a 27-year-old, But what drove Post was far from tion, reportedly avoided airfields one-eyed pilot. content. where his lack of a license might be He spent two months in the Davis detected. Aided by Hall's influence, Mountains of southwestern Texas with Post passed the exams and in 1928 an uncle hunting quail, deer and coy- 4 received his pilot's license. otes. He there taught himself to gauge Post knew F.C. Hall, an oilman in His difficulties with the license were depth with his remaining eye. Instead Chickasha. Hall was, according to more than compensated by Hall's new of dropping his flying ambitions, he Post, a born gambler who had "the plane, a Wasp-motored Lockheed turned this loss into the realization of best judgment of any man I have Vega. With its closed cabin and sleek his dream of owning an airplane. \Vth knoxvn." Hall had, for instance, drilled design, it was "the most up-to-date poise and great presence of mind, he 300 oil wells and had only two dusters. airplane of 1928." Post loved it; avia- reversed his adversity. Hall's good judgment prevailed when tion historians call this the perfect mar- For his eye he got $1,800 in \Vork- he hired one-eyed Wiley Post to fly his riage of man and machine. Flying the man's Compensation. He used the new plane, a three-passenger, open- 1Vinnie:Clae into Oklahoma City for the money to buy and rebuild (at Ardmore) cockpit Travel Air. Now Post had his first time, Post "roared over the airport a Canuck airplane. Shortly before first steady, well-paying job in avia- fence" while Hall and his daughter, for Lindbergh's transatlantic flight in hiay tion, one that would use his skills as a whom the plane was named, watched. 1927. Post launched himself into the pilot, his knowledge of the terrain of He "pulled up in a steep climb to flying business. During the week he the region and his understanding of show off the tricks of the white bullet flew oilmen to their leaseholdings in the oil business. \Tiley and hlae ... , putting her through her paces high the rough country of southeastern moved to Oklahoma City where Hall in the air so that her new owner might Oklahoma, southern Arkansas and had moved his offices. They rented an see what a beautiful thing his IVinnie northeast Texas. On weekends he apartment at 706 \Y. 29th Street. The Mae was," he later wrote. hired out to the remaining flying cir- Travel kr was kept at an airfield at But adversity continued to shadow cuses. He and his new wife, Mae May and Britton roads. Post's flying. Hall was tied to boom- Laine, lived in Duncan. Although But Post's past shadowed his new and-bust cycles in the oil business. In - there were hard times and financial respectability. Licensing for pilots had addition, he was financially hurt by the reverses, Post was making a place for recently begun, and Post, war). be- stock market crash in 1929. As a conse- himself in the aviation industry. cause of his one eve and felonv convic- ouence. Hall reluctantlv had to sell the

-- September-October 1988 first Winnie Mae back to Lockheed. aviator of the time, Post understood aviation one inch." He and Hall quar- Post had no job and no airplane. the main limits of aviation to be hu- reled. He was piqued by some press Yet he had learned to turn adversity man, not mechanical. His struggle reports that Gatty was the brains be- into advantage. When he delivered the with melancholy no doubt helped him hind the flight. His speaking engage- Winnie Mae to Lockheed in Los Ange- to see the importance of this human ments were not successful. Post was les, he managed to get hired by them dimension. To cut down on his fa- "disillusioned," according to a newspa- as a test pilot. Although he flew with tigue, Post learned to keep his mind a per report, exactly as he had been after one eye and had no engineering educa- total blank, handling the Winnie Mae his first flight over U'alters. tion, Post was respected for his skill as almost automatically. To break up his But adversity brought out his best. a pilot and his intuitive understanding sleep rhythms, he never slept the same In the midst of the Great Depression, of aeronautics. During 1929-30 he flew hours on any two days in the same in a state very hard hit, Post began to with Lockheed and worked with the week. To further prepare himself, he plan a solo flight around the world. leading aeronautical engineers of the restricted his diet. Post tuned himself Oilmen could provide little help, but day. Flying with him at Lockheed was and the Winnie Mae. Post arranged for the Oklahoma City . Post had turned the Chamber of Commerce to sell sub- loss of the lliinnie Mae into a superior Post loved the scriptions for his flight. .4 miller in education in aeronautics and flying. Yukon, Jean Krautill, helped financial- But Post was no company man. Winnie Mae. ly. So did aeronautical companies. When in June 1930 Hall asked him to Aviation histori- When a friend crashed the Il'innie supervise the building of a second Win- Mae near Chickasha causing significant nie Mae and to return to Oklahoma as ans call this the damage, Post characteristically used Hall's personal pilot, Post accepted. per$iect marriage the occasion to improve the airplane's Now there wasn't a bad situation to long-flight capabilities. reverse but a good situation to take as of man and machine. And Post prepared himself for the far as he desired. "I had hardly got adversities of the flight. He underwent going" flying for Hall "when the old The flight tested Post's abilities to long periods of sleeplessness. Old avia- desire to make a record flight took a meet adversity. With Gatty as his navi- tors remember Post sitting alone in the tight hold on me again." No longer gator, Post was forced by weather to fly Winnie Mae in a dark hanger for up to was his arena a Wewoka pasture. blind. At Blagoveshchensk, U.S.S. R., 12 hours. the Winnie Mae was so stuck in mud Arranging to test experimental only horses could pull her out, and on equipment, he wanted this flight to be a beach near Solomon, Alaska, the no stunt. He had installed on the Win- As Post prepared a transcontinental plane nosed over, bending the propel- nie Mae the Sperry automatic pilot, an flight, the National Air Races an- ler which fortunately Post repaired automatic radio direction finder and a nounced a non-stop derby between with a hammer, wrench and stone. In variable pitch propeller which had not Los Angeles and Chicago. Post en- Edmonton, Alberta, mud made a take- up until then proven reliable. tered. Using engineering knowledge off impossible, but the city cleared a On July 15, 1933, Post took off gained in his year at Lockheed, Post paved street of power and telephone alone from in prepared the Winnie Mae by lowering lines so the Winnie Mae could be on her New York. He was the first to fly non- the angle of her wing in order to gain way. On July 1, 1931, eight days, 15 stop from New York to Berlin-25 speed. A navigator with a national rep- hours and 51 minutes after leaving hours, 45 minutes. Going on. the 14'in- utation, Harold Gatty, charted Post's New York's Roosevelt Field, the Win- nie Mae was damaged in a landing at course. In flight, however, Post's com- nie Mae returned. Post had circled the Flat, Alaska. But when he returned to pass failed and he had to fly most of globe in 12 days less time than the Floyd Bennett on July 22, he was the the 1,760 miles by referring maps to Graf Zeppelin, the previous record hold- first man to fly around the world the ground. Although this lost 40 min- er. Ten thousand people greeted Post alone-seven days, 18 hours, 49 112 utes, Post still won the National Air and Gatty. There was a tickertape pa- minutes. Race, $7,500 in prize money and na- rade in New York City and a White Fifty thousand people greeted him. tional recognition. House reception by President Hoover. He was received at the White House Without pause he began planning an But because of the kind of man he by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. around-the-world flight. He readied was, Post had more trouble with suc- His fame was worldwide. the Winnie Mae at the Lockheed fac- cess than with adversity. He told an But Post's public appearances were . tory in Los Angeles. He also readied interviewer that his flight was a "stunt less than successful and he soon devot- himself because, more than any other that didn't advance the mechanics of ed himself, instead, to the advance-

30 Oklahoma TODAY ment of aviation. His tests on the flight but mechanical problems forced was in a hurry to be off, Post went around-the-world flight of the auto-pi- him to land at Cleveland, Ohio, after ahead and installed pontoon floats tll;~t lot, the direction finder and the vari- flying an astonishing average speed of were too nose-heavy for the plane. able pitch propeller were successful. 279 m.p.h., thanks to the jet stream. Tired, he did not have his usu~IIy (All are now standard equipment on He tried again on April 14and June 15, acute judgment. Post was, according to most aircraft.) With uncanny accuracy but each time equipment failures friends, again disillusioned with avia- Post saw the future of aviation. In an brought him down. Although exten- tion. To escape his international celeb- interview he foresaw blind flying and sively modified, this was the same rity, he was contemplating a move landings, and "flying the strato- Winnie Mae he and Gatty had flown (with his wife Mae) to Alaska. sphere." He talked of leaving the at- But, as the world knows, on August mosphere to orbit the earth. With uncanny ac- 15, 1935, Post and Rogers landed the Post went to Wright Field, Ohio, Orion-Explorer near Point Barrow to where he helped to develop and test curacy, Post saw ask directions. Ifhen they took off the the world's first pressurized flight suit the future of avi- plane had risen only 50 feet when the in the first L.S. altitude chamber. To engine quit and the plane, weighted equip the Il'innie .Mue for high alti- ation. In an down by its pontoons, smacked into tudes, he installed supercharging interview he fore- the shallow water. Post and Rogers equipment. He tested the pressure were killed. suit and modified Il'innie .Mae in an saw 'yying the Post's funeral was the largest ever ascension over the Chicago ITorld's stratosphere" and held, before or since, in Oklahoma. Fair of 1934. He rose to 40,000 feet, a Twenty thousand people viewed his little short of the altitude record. Now talked of leaving casket at the Oklahoma State Capitol. his attempts at record-breaking were the atmosphere to Quoting Isaiah h0:8 Post's eulogist designed to test new equipment and to asked the central question: "W'ho are attract financial support. orbit the earth. these that fly as a cloud?" In autumn 1934 Post set up in Bar- Walter Harrison, Post's close friend, tlesville where he and his wife lived around the world in 1931; the plane gave the answer that sufficed for many with, and were financially backed by. was tired and so was Post. years: "Post, the nerveless, taciturn, Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum. Post achieved this goal of a coast-to- all-steel farmboy, was an enigma to P Irying? to reach an altitude of 50,000 coast flight at great speed only in the most of those with whom he came into feet, Post on December 3 climbed to fantasy of movies. In 1934-35 he contact. He came as near to being a 48,000 feet before equipment failure played a pilot in the film Air Hawks, mechanical flying machine as any hu- forced him to descend. On December which starred Ralph Bellamy. The plot man being who ever held a stick." 7 he reached an unverified altitude of involved a firm struggling to get airmail However, now that we know the full 50,000 feet and, almost incidentally, contracts. The day is saved when Post extent of the adversity Post overcame, discovered the jet stream-a river of flies coast-to-coast to win the contract. we can at last know fully his character wind flowing at great speeds from west Post's love of aviation had begun as he and the exact nature of his remarkable to east over the U.S. (Today the jet read magazines about aviation on the human achievement. stream is routinely used by commercial family cotton farm near Marlow. Now aircraft. ) he lived in an uneasy alliance with that Wi/q Post was buried in .Memoria/ Park This discovery opened to Post a new romanticized world. Cemetev in Ok/ahoma 6i'~.His v;fe.Vae, realm of challenge. Using the jet who nmr rmrried, was buried baia'e stream, he would fly at much faster him after her death in 1984. speeds nonstop coast-to-coast. Post sought to combine his long distance Post was nearly out of money when C/qhistearha writing and /zterature at achievements, his work in high alti- Will Rogers offered to pay him to fly the Ilniveni~of OkLahoma. In addition to tude pressurization and his recent dis- the two of them to Alaska. Rogers was nmspapen, periodica/s, pub/ir dorutiten~s covery of the jet stream. tired from making the film Steamboat and intemims, the author has tx7ensivef)l On February 22, 1935, he took off 'RoundhBend and wanted the trip for used for I-.femre the hooks Around the from Burbank, California, but sabotage relaxation. Preparing to sell the Winnie World in Eight Days, b Il'i/q Post and forced him to crash land in the desert. Mae to the Smithsonian (where it is Harold Catty, and \Tiley Post, His \Tin- His successes were now making him still displayed), Post pieced together a nie Mae, and the World's First Pres- the target of envy. On March 5, he Lockheed Orion-Explorer from parts sure Suit, & Stan/q R. .Cfoh/er and again attempted the coast-to-coast of two wrecked planes. Since Rogers Bobb H. Johnson.

September-October 1988 31 PORTFOLIO

"Light is everything," says Enid photographer Jan Randolph Couch. Changing seasons bring changes in the quality of light, preserved in Couch's photograph of the sun's dy- ing fire against the roofline of an old barn. She captured the morning sun- shine as it gilds children on their way towards a new school year- with new clothes and a new teacher. Early on the morning of the first frost, J. R. Toland photographed an Adair County field layered in freez- ing fog. "I love that first snap, that first bite," he says. "Autumn is my beginning."

dUl I I\Ul IUUlEJl I LUULl I Windmill near Lahoma Jan Randolph Couch Children walking to school, Enid

September-October 1988 33 J.R. Toland Pasture, Adair County

Oklahoma TODAY September-October 1988 Second place: Charla Dobson, Weather- ford, Red Rock Canyon State Park Third place: Jennifer Cassada, Arnett, Boiling Springs State Park

Amateur, wildlife First place: Dennis Thompson, Lone Grove, Lake Murray State Park Second place: Susan Loy, Claremore, Osage Hills State Park Third place: Jack Anderson, Waukomis, Great Salt Plains State Park

Amateur, outdoor recreation First place: Donna Thompson, Lone Grove, Lake Murray State Park Second place: Jack Anderson, Waukomis, Great Salt Plains State Park Third place: Dale Yocum, Edmond, Rob- bers Cave State Park

Enid photographer John Hi@tower won first p/ace in the amateur's scenic category and grand Amateur, scenic prize for the amateur division with this image of fa/foliage in Talimenu State Pad. First place: John Hightower, Enid, Tali- mena State Park Second place: Marsha Jones, Broken mages of lustrous foliage, wild place winners were awarded a year's Bow, Beavers Bend State Park turkeys coping with winter, sil- subscription to Oklahoma IDDAY. Pho- Third place: Daniel Rose, Idabel, Hocha- houetted fishermen and siz- tographers who placed third won an town State Park zling hot dogs resulted from a Oklahoma state park T-shirt. Each challenge Oklahoma TODAY sent to the child who entered received an Oklaho- Professional, scenic state's photographers. The challenge ma state park patch and certificate. First place: Jerry Poppenhouse, Bartles- was brief: Take your camera and Grand prize winners-one from the ville, Osage Hills State Park imagination to any of the state's 32 professional and one from the amateur Second place: Bob Smith, Tulsa, Green- parks during the fall and winter divisions-were awarded three-day, leaf State Park months and send us photographs that two-night stays in a state park or resort. Professional, wildlife show inventively composed subject We're proud to announce the win- matter and superb technical quality. ners, along with the park where the First place: Jerry Poppenhouse, Bartles- Oklahoma TODAY s first photogra- winning photograph was taken. ville, Osage Hills State Park phy contest-open to children, as well as amateur and professional photogra- Grand prize phers-drew more than 200 entries in Children, scenic eight categories. Amateur: John Hightower's fall scenic from Talimena State Park The Thompson family, a trio of First place: Candace Aikens, Norman, Red Rock Canyon State Park Professional: Jerry Poppenhouse's photo- photographers from Lone Grove, Second place: Careylyn Stucky, Arnett, graph of wild turkeys in Osage Hills State turned trips to Lake Murray State Park Boiling Springs State Park Park into three first-place prizes. And Jerry Third place: Donald Thompson, Oklaho- Poppenhouse, a photographer for Phil- ma City, Roman Nose State Park lips Petroleum Company, swept the lie magazine will sponsor anoher photog- professional division with images taken Children, wildlife raphy contm this fall and winter. Photo- during 1988's plentiful snowfall in First place: Becky Cukjati, Tulsa, Se- graphs mwt be taken between Oct. 1, 1988, Osage Hills State Park. quoyah State Park and Mad 31, 1989, in any state pad. The winners of each category won For a lht of mles, categories and prim, two-day, one-night photography expe- Children, outdoor recreation please send a stamped, self-addmsed enve- ditions guided by park naturalists in Fit place: Gretchen Thompson, Lone lope to Oklahoma TODAY, P.O. Box the state park of their choice. Second- Grove, Lake Murray State Park 53384, Oklahoma City, OK 73152.

Oklahoma TODAY THISYEAR,GIVECOLOR

uring the next year, To order gift subscriptions, fill in SPECIAL NOTICE: Oklahoma's colorful history- the card insert and mail it to us. We will D Help us share Okhhoma TODAY with from the Land Run through process your order quickly and send Statehood-will be re-told in the pages of gift announcement cards for you to sign those outside the Sooner State borders. OR/a/loma TODAY will OkIahoma TODAY like onlv our personally. Recipients of out-of-state gift follow-up each out-of-state gift talented writers and photographers can subscription with an attractive and tell it. Faithfully. Entertainingly. subscriptions will receive their invitations to visit Oklahoma in the Spring. official invitation to visit our state - Colorfully. during the Centennial Our special Centennial Series and of the Land Run. Souvenir Edition alone make Oklahoma Gift Subscription Prices: 1st Subscription -$12.00 Oklahoma's having TODAY a great gift for family, friends a party! Let and business associates, but when you Each additional Subscription - $10.00 To order your gift subscriptions, use Oklahoma TODAY consider the one-of-a-kind features, invite your friends entertaining special sections and the form on page 44 or, if using a credit and family. incredible photography, issue after card, call toll free, 1-800-652-6552 or issue...well, it's a gift that'll bring color to call (405) 521-2496. their lives. All year long. @eFirst Lady's

By Ann DeFrange

SdIIwater Werner Donna Frank demonstrate her crap while tending her dispkzy. Amund her is a sampler of the mafa shown at he bazaar.

38 Oklahoma TODAY throughout the state and now lists their work in hobby status. His wood more than 900 on its roster. That list carvings of duck decoys and other wild from Stillwater ... a frequently goes to planners of small birds seem an unlikely extension of his bronze sculptor from festivals and arts and crafts shows. A career as an auto mechanic, but Tahlequah ... a clock further benefit of the alliance, says Hughes says after retirement it kept builder from Sayre ... a Kern, is marketing opportunities for him working with his hands and with photographbl >om Edmond ... a sil- artisans through such shows or through familiar tools. versmith from Anadarko ... a bead wholesale contacts. He limits his shows now, so that his worker from Holdenville. The first bazaar gave her contacts for leisure time can also include the fish- Their products illustrate the skills other shows, says Betty Kendrick, a ing and travel he covets, but the con- that have been passed through genera- tacts with art appreciators are almost as tions of Oklahomans and which are Jack Hughes satisfying as the creation, he says. "It's displayed proudly in homes through- very important to me when people out the state. ships carvings to come up and look at mv stuff and brag To bring the artists together with California where on it. It makes me feel good." art-appreciators, the annual First La- Hughes ships some carvings to Cali- dy's Bazaar will be staged for the sec- "they go wild for fornia where "they just go wild for it. ond time in the location that proved so it. They're very They're very interested in what's profitable for it last year-the yard of made in Oklahoma." the historic Harn Homestead in Okla- interested in This year's bazaar will offer 120 homa City. what's made in booths filled with glass art, pottery, The statehood-era setting made an ceramics, jewelry, fine arts, leather appropriate showcase for crafts which Oklahoma." goods, clothing, needlework, tole may be older than the state itself. The painting, porcelain and china, floral ar- place and products spanned a time Stillwater weaver of oak and reed bas- rangements, toys and dolls, quilts. All, when many of the crafts-the quilts, kets. That skill started out "for my of course, made in Oklahoma. Dl the pottery, the baskets-filled a own enjoyment" until "it kind of functional need in households to the turned around, things started happen- Witer Ann DeFrange //feesin present when such items can be en- ing." She now has arrangements with a OR/ahoma City. joyed as decorative art. few shops and galleries and is looking More than 3,000 people visited that at wholesale markets. first bazaar to choose the work of 125 Kendrick sees a growing apprecia- artisans, says Sally Kern, assistant to tion for "fine crafted work," and that First Lady Shirley Bellmon. growth may be due to the artisans All the craftsmen are Oklahomans. themselves at just such shows. She Getting The Oklahoma Alliance for Artisans, of spends a lot of time at her booth-and There which Mrs. Bellmon is board presi- notes that other craftsmen do, too- dent, was formed to help craftsmen explaining the techniques, skills and "find places to put their goods." The time involved. After a demonstration, More than 120 amians and First Lady originated the idea several she says, "people have a lot more mfimen have been inen'& to dibit their years ago when she and her daughters appreciation." wod at rhe Fint k4's Bazaar, which began holding small crafts shows for The time involved is necessarily a is scheduled September 30-October 1 at the neighbors at her farm in Billings. She part-time allocation for Carl Fuchs of Ham Homatead and 89er ~Vuseum, 312 N.E. 18th Stmet in ORMoma Cio. expanded the concept statewide after Sayre. By day he operates a meat pro- Th show will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. cessing plant, but in his private time she moved to the Governor's Mansion. ad dq. The alliance also works to encourage he fashions small desk clocks and To read the Ham Homestead, air Oklahomans to "take pride in the tal- weather instruments from oak. He's 1-35 at N.E. 10th Srreer and drive vest ent right in their own backyard," Kern found a pleasant and profitable market to Lincoln Boultward. Turn nod on says. "People don't need to go pur- in the numerous local festivals around Lincoln to 18th, where you7// //m west. chase country crafts in Kentucky to the state, but the bazaar was a stroke of A $2 admission fee cwen the ITS and place in shops in Oklahoma. We've got luck. Like any artist, "I have visions of mfishow and a tour of the museum. For it right here." doing it full time, but I doubt I could." more infomation, calf Saf!,' Kern at Mrs. Bellmon's staff originally sur- Jack Hughes of Shawnee represents (405) 521 -2342. veyed the work of 3,000 craftsmen a group of craftsmen who categorize

September-October 1988

By Sheila Samples Photographs by David Koelsch

nless you're a cat person or sulted in new life for Oklahoma's ken- you're an outsider, you must come to a complete curmudgeon, nel club shows, which draw from rural grips with the idea that things don't you'll probably agree that areas throughout the state, as well as necessarily have to make sense, that "dog- is man's best friend." from more than 20 other states. And each society has its own rules of behav- uThere are hundreds of such adages, ior, its own order. To a dog show first- and as many more platitudes and anal- timer, it's like watching a ballet dancer ogies that reflect how completely man Ownek who burst through the curtains at one side relates to this animal. want to get an of the theater and soar magnificently The natural result of this bond is the across the stage to disappear into the dog show, a national year-round, edge on their dark recesses of the other side. You multi-million-dollar phenomenon competition can never quite grasp what it was you which has mushroomed from kids thought you saw, but an indelible af- claiming neighborhood bragging rights pick up anti-stat- ter-image remains to haunt you. and exclusive events attended by high- ic coat gloss, "Did I just give way to an English toned society breeders. Bulldog wearing a ballcap with a pro- American Kennel Club superinten- breath mints, oil peller on top?" Unbelieving, you dent Jack Onofrio of Oklahoma City of mink-even whirl, but the crowd has parted and says that, during the mid-'70s when oil closed, and the after-image of a dis- and gas prices skyrocketed and people Faberge's Grand gruntled, heavy-jowled midget jogging could no longer afford long hauls to Finale holding purposefully through a clamoring press show their pets, AKC shored up its of humanity doesn't quite ring true. struggling act by allowing city and area mist spray A vision of spun angel hair seems to kennel clubs to "cluster1' shows, which cologne. float toward you. It appears to be allows four clubs to sponsor shows at buoyed by unbelievably delicate legs one location. That means a Dalmatian and tiny, perfectly manicured feet, breeder from Perry could travel to Tul- not only can breeders score big at the which scarcely touch the ground. It has sa or Oklahoma City for four days, state's two cluster shows-where more been back-brushed, blown-dry and enter four separate shows and get four than 2,500 dogs compete and their aerosol-sprayed until it is a perfect chances to win ribbons and coveted owners spend more than $2 million a shimmering stark-white circle. It looks AKC championship points. This re- year-they can also enter individual vaguely familiar, and it isn't until you club shows in Lawton, Shawnee, Enid search out the sparkling, intelligent ThMer Joan Stainer has /wed Eng/id S~TWSfor 55 ycan and says of and Muskogee. black eyes of a poodle that you recog- dampion Sden, one of he I0 nation's Like the opera crowd, the dog show nize it for what it is. bnr: '9'd love her ifshe wen ugh." world is a whole "other" society. If You may not have stepped through the looking glass, but you're convinced "We get asked for some crazy that you have your nose pressed hard things," Steve Courtney says. "We sell against it. car seats for dogs, seat belts, pajamas, Once there, however, it soon be- raincoats and slickers, sweaters-even comes apparent that the man-dog rela- 'London Dog' trenchcoats. But the tionship extends beyond friendship. wildest item I've ever sold is a special- Dog is also man's bread and butter. ly made pooch brass daybed. It For starters, a dog show is a star- wouldn't matter if we brought 10,000 studded, full-scale production with items to a show. We always have re- trained canine performers that know quests for things that nobody's thought exactly what to do. And all are good, I of yet." most are better and some are the very In last year's Lawton show, 1,043 best at doing it. dogs represented 107 different breeds A dog show doesn't just happen. It in the show, and ranged from the fa- takes battalions of people who know miliar Shepherd, Doberman and Cock- what they're doing to pull it off suc- er Spaniel to the more exotic cessfully. It's big business, especially Rhodesian Ridgeback, Papillon, Kees- for folks like Onofrio, who, as one of honden and even a phantom-like Phar- 12 licensed AKC contractors, is literally oah Hound. a traveling dog show. Onofrio's eight- A hands-down favorite with specta- truck fleet travels more than 500,000 John Ohnmacht and Dachshund Albert tors and breeders alike were the 32 miles annually, and each carries all the compete with other breed in a vane0 class. ' good-humored Bulldogs, formerly equipment and services needed- known as English Bulldogs. Totally down to the last scrap of paper-to the event. Combs, brushes, oils- businesslike, their "it's a dirty job but put on a successful show. even breath mints and toothbrushes- ' someone has to do it" attitude evokes "I love dogs," says Onofrio, who clutter table tops. Dogs are bent, fold- grins from everyone, including a judge freely admits German Shepherds are ed and twisted into every conceivable or two. his favorite breed, "and I'm totally in- position. They sit, stand or lean for "Every kid in the country should volved in the business. My greatest hours. They yawn, patiently endure- have a Bulldog," says Wayne Brower, reward is doing something that I love even sleep-through the elaborate, a building contractor from Pleasant to do-and being paid for it." time-consuming toilet that must be Hill, Missouri, who has produced 21 He provides ring equipment-car- performed before each show. champion Bulldogs in the last 11 years. peting, runs and neat picket-fence All of these beauty supplies and "In fact, I wish every kid could have boundaries-and fat little show cata- more can be purchased at a "Doggie that one," he says, pointing to Max, his logs with up to 150 pages each. Sixteen Wonderland" supermarket right on the squatty champion. years ago, Onofrio and his crew staged premises. Ray and Steve Courtney of "Max is friendly and fun, and he's 62 shows; today, he and his 55 em- Grapevine, Texas, have set up shop in easy to care for. I get tired just watch- ployees put on a whopping 350 major the Coliseum for the past 15 years, and ing other folks get their dogs ready to all-breed shows a year. offer about 5,000 items, most of which show. All I do is bathe Max before I The Lawton-Fort Sill Kennel Club are specifically designed to pamper the leave home. When we get to where offers one of the finest shows in the most discriminating pet. we're going, I clean out the wrinkles, country, and annually draws entries in There are bones made of wood, raw- give him a big hug, and he's ready for most of the 130 different breed catego- hide, rubber and, of course, the real the ring." ries. Although the judging is in the thing. Owners who want to get an Brower says Max is a ham and mammoth Great Plains Coliseum and edge on their competition can pick up makes more money on his own than all in the nearby Multi-Purpose building, lint rollers, anti-static coat gloss, oil of of his other 17 Bulldogs combined. the attendant activity sprawls through- mink and even Faberge's Grand Fina- Max is nationally known as "Champi- out the entire Comanche County Fair- le holding mist spray cologne. The dog on Shady Tree Spike" and nationally grounds. The fair barn, an acre of biscuit business is booming, and the accepted as one of the best of his space, is one huge beauty salon with Courtneys offer flavors of munchies breed. backstage, pre-show frenzy that could that Old Shep can only dream about. "He loves it," Brower says of his rival a Miss Universe Contest. There are books on every subject, champion, "the whole thing. He loves Steam curlers, blow-dryers, scissors from potty-training animals to teaching to travel, and he loves to compete. and crimpers go non-stop throughout them proper table manners. After he'd won a few ribbons, he be-

Oklahoma TODAY gan thinking he was entitled to win. the title itself-in stud fees and for "Once," Brower recalls, "after Max pups produced by champions. came out of the ring, he tore over to "It costs a lot of money if you don't the photo stand and hopped up to get win," Brower says at the end of the his picture taken. The judge, who show. "It also costs a lot of money if hadn't pointed to a winner yet, looked you do win. But what the heck," he at me, frowned, and said, 'Did you said, nodding at a rapidly retreating plan that?' I hadn't," Brower says, Max, who was headed straight for the "but I sure was glad that Max won. It photo stand, "it gives us all a chance to would have been embarrassing to haul strut." him away from the camera if he didn't deserve to have his picture taken." F~elancewn'ter Shei/a Sampk /iva in Brower, like other serious breeders hton. David Koekch is an OR/ahoma and showmen, spends thousands of C~Q-basedphotographer. dollars each year and travels 30,000 to 40,000 miles along a grueling dog show I circuit. He says he'll retire Max from If you'd like to visit the "other" the ring this year and admits he recent- world of dog shows, here's the ly turned down $10,000 for him. Echedule of fall shows sponsored A dog will bring whatever the buyer by Okiahoma's kennel clubs. For is willing to pay. Onofrio recalls that Do mnm and dogs look a/ike? Comparp more information, call (405) 427- his friend, Jane Firestone (of Firestone the prof/a of Debbie Go/den and Nike. 8181. Tires), once spent nearly a million dol- Oct. 16 Sooner State Kennel lars on a German Shepherd who had a judge goes over each dog in the ring, Club, Garfield County Fair- racked up more than 200 "Best in he compares him to a mental picture of grounds, Enid Show" awards. the perfect dog of that breed. He looks Oct. 30 Lawton-Fort Sill Kennel People give a wondrous array of rea- at the physical structure, such as mus- Club, Great Plains Coliseum, sons for showing their pets. Joan Stain- cle tone, the physical condition- Lawton er of Tulsa-who has produced 48 proper weight, animation-and champion English Setters, including watches a dog's gait closely from the Nov. 4 Muskogee Kennel Club, winners at the Chicago International, front, side and rear. A dog who is shy Civic Center, Muskogee Beverly Hills Kennel Club and New or vicious is penalized heavily. Nov. 6 Mid-Continent Kennel York's Westminster shows-says many It takes an ebullient spirit to hold up Club of Tulsa, Tulsa County Fair- breeders are committed to the idea of through the challenging jaunt through gruunds producing a perfect specimen of the the ring maze to the top of the heap. Nov. 8 Bartlesville Kennel Club, breed they love. A more common rea- First-time winners face Best-of-Breed Tulsa State Fairgrounds son, even among breeders of Stainer's competition with dogs who are already Nov. 9 Seminole Kennel Club, stature, is owners love their dogs. champions. Then there's the Best-of- Heart of America Exposition Cen- "I can't imagine life without them," Winners contest, and on and on until ter, Shawnee says Stainer, who once hosted a talk all breeds are judged and only one dog show about dogs and has a hospital- in each breed remains undefeated. Nov. 10 Oklahoma City Com- quality incubator in her kennel. "Dogs It's still not over. Dogs then change bined Specialities Association, are therapy. I solve all my problems gears and compete in one of seven State Fairgrounds, OKC while brushing a dog. The more mat- groups-Sporting, Hound, Working, Nov. 11 Oklahoma City Kennel ted they are, the better." Terrier, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herd- Club, State Fairgrounds, OKC For breeders like Stainer and ing. These seven winners then com- Nov. 12 Mid Del-Tinker Kennel Brower, winning is the bottom-line at pete in the final Best-in-Show Club, State Fairgrounds, OKC any show, and that's why judges are competition. This is the moneymaker, Nov. 13 Town and Country Ken- the undisputed VIPs at any such gath- the bull of the woods, the dog that nel Club of Norman, State Fair- ering. Never are faces watched more every owner believes is his. Getting grounds, OKC closely for fleeting expressions than the world to acknowledge it is what when dogs are going through their keeps the wheels rolling from show to Nov. 14 Canadian Valley Kennel paces in competition. show. Although cash awards are rarely Club, State Fairgrounds, OKC Rules are strimgently adhered to. As offered, potential earnings come from

September-October 1988 The State Flag of Oklahoma EveryOkletKKnenehouM fir the state flag during 1989. In 1W/o nylon, the3' by 5' Aag is $37.50 plus $1.50 for shipping. The 4" by 6" desk

Oklahoma's state wiMRawer, The Indian Blanket, bloom fm May to August, but our "Okla- homa's lndii Blanket" sw~atsMrt blooms all year. W@Ptt?s"aih&p Labay original. Or; ksr th@

Send orders to Oklallonla 1'01)Al. P.O. Box 53384 Oklahoma Cit), Okla. 73152 Subscriptioris or ltelns

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6 Sept. 5 Zoom to the finish line or vie for laid-back honors in the "Poky Okie" division at the KRMG Great Raft Race in Tulsa. A flotilla of bedecked (and bedraggled) crafts make the trip along the Arkansas River. 6 Sept 17 Join the crowd as more than 1,000 bicyclists pedal a 52-mile course along the Old Chisholm Trail to honor the Cherokee Strip Opening. Or cheer from the finish line in Enid, savoring Indian food and dancing. Just like in 1893, the race begins in Kansas. +Oct. 1-2 "Oktoberfest" booths sprout on the manicured grounds of the Marland Estate in Ponca City, along with polka music, bratwurst and handiworks. (Former Gov. E. W. Marland always liked a good party.) Oct. 21-31 Get spooked at the "Ghost and and Goblins Tour" through the Alabaster Caverns. Count Dracula just might pop up from behind a pink boulder. ,---. 25-Oct. 26, Sculpture by Kevin M. Irvin, Gardiner Art (iallery, Stillwater, (405) 624-6016 OCTOBER MUSEUMS & GALLERIES 1-31 Tapestries by Pamela Husky, Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum, Woodward, (405) 256-6136 SEPTEMBER 1-31 Sculpture by Laurie Spencer, Plains Indians and 1-30 Works by Jean Howe, Plains Indians and Pioneers Pioneers Museum, Woodward, (405) 256-6136 Museum. Woodward, (405) 256-6136 1-Nov. 30 "Slot Canyons," Int'l Photography Hall of Fame 1-30 "The World of Sports," Int'l Photography Hall of and Museum, OKC, (405) 424-4055 Fame and Museum, OKC, (405) 424-4055 2 Fiber Arts by Edna Davis Jackson, Southern Plains 10-Nov. 6 "Robert Colescott: A Retrospective," OU Indian Museum and Crafts Center, Anadarko, Museum of Art, Norman, (405) 325-3272 (405) 247-6221 10-Oct. 30 "Northern New Mexico, 1958: A Day on the 4-Nov. 15 "Prints by 20th Century Artists, West Gallery, Mountain," OU Museum of Art, Norman, (405) Kirkpatrick Center, OKC, (405) 427-5461 325-3272 8 "Art Under the Oaks," Five Civilized Tribes 11-Nov. 13 "VisionMakers," Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Museum, Muskogee, (918) 683-1701 (918) 749-7941 15-Nov. 13 Works by Hsiao-Yen Yeh, Firehouse Art Center, 17-Nov. 16 "R. Brownell McGrew: Retrospective Exhibition Norman, (405) 329-4523 of Paintings," Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, (918) 582-3122 17-Nov. 27 "Starry Skies and Dusry Trails," Kirkpatrick

Planetarium, OKC, (405) 424-5545 / -. ,. .- 18-Nov. 6 Paintings and Drawings by Pietro Lazzari, OK Museum of Art, OKC, (405) 840-2759 DRAMA 24-Nov. 30 ": Oklahoma Landmark," OK SEPTEMBER Museum of Natural History, Norman, (405) 325- 8-25 "West Side Story," Jewel Box Theatre, OK<:, 4711 (405) 521-1786

September-October 1988 9-1 1, 13-18 "The Nerd," Theatre Tulsa, (918) 744-1 168 24 Scottish Games and Gathering, Manion Park, 9-11, 15-18, "Anything Goes," Pollard Theatre, Guthrie, (405) Tulsa, (918) 227-2662 22-25 29-Oct. 1 282-2800 24-25 Int'l Festival, McMahon Plaza, Lawton, (405) 248- 16-17 "Jerry's Girls," Community Center, Bartlesville, 8055 (918) 337-2787 29-Oct. 9 Tulsa State Fair, Expo Square, Tulsa, (918) 744- 23-Oct. 1 "Harvey," Lawton Community Theater, (405) 1113 355-1600 OCTOBER 30 "Prime Time Mime," Sooner Theatre, Norman, 1 Fall Fest, Fuqua Park, Duncan, (405) 255-0510 (405) 360-1162 1 Czech Festival, Yukon, (405) 354-3567 30-Oct. 8 "Sherlock's Last Case," American Theatre Co., 1 Oktoberfest, downtown Pauls Valley, (405) 238- Tulsa, (918) 747-9494 6491 OCTOBER 1 Firefighters Fall Festival and Chili Cook-off, 6-7 "Oliver," Bartlesville Theatre Guild, Community Grady County Fairgrounds, Chickasha. (405) 224- Center, Bartlesville, (918) 337-2787 6615 14-16, 20-23, "Steel Magnolias," The Pollard Theatre, Guthrie, 1-2 Arts and Crafts Festival, City Hall, Sallisaw, (918) 27-30, NOV.3-6, (405) 282-2800 775-2585 10-12 1-2 Oktoberfest, Marland Estate, Ponca City, (405) 20-Nov. 6 "Alone Together," Jewel Box Theatre, OKC, 767-8888 (405) 521-1786 1-2 Fall Festival of the Arts,_SEOSlJ, Durant, (405) 28-30. Nov. 1-6 "Night Watch," Theatre Tulsa, (918) 744-1168 934-0848 8-9 Sorghum Festival, Kerr Center, Poteau, (918) 647- 9989 14-16 Oktoberfest, Hardy Murphy Coliseum, Ardmore, (405) 223-4270 20-23 Oktoberfest, River Parks, 'Tulsa, (918) 582-0051 FAIRS & FESTIVALS 21-22 Pumpkin Festival of the Arts, Caddo County SEPTEMBER Fairgrounds, Anadarko, (405) 247-6651 1-3 Caddo County Fair, Anadarko, (405) 247-6651 22 Sorghum Festival, downtown Wewoka, (405) 257- 1-3 Kiowa County Fair, Hobart, (405) 726-5643 5485 1-3 Tillman County Fair, Frederick, (405) 335-5541 1-3 Fall Festival, Coweta, (918) 486-2513 3-4 Krebs Ethnic Festival, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Krebs, (918) 423-2842 MUSIC & DANCE 3-5 Arts Festival OK, OKCCC, OKC, (405) 682-7591 SEPTEMBER 5 Watermelon Festival, Cleo Springs, (405) 438-2536 8 Twilight Concert Series, Chandler Park. Tulsa, 5-11 Cherokee Strip Celebration, Enid, (918) 237-2494 (918) 583-0032 6-10 Stephens County Fair, Duncan, (405) 255-0510 9-10 Bartlesville Symphony Pops Concert, Community 8-10 Leflore County Fair, Poteau, (918) 647-9178 Center, Bartlesville, (918) 337-2787 8-10 Cleveland County Fair, Norman, (405) 360-4721 9-1 1 Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Performing Arts Center, 9-11 Chili Cook-off and Bluegrass Festival, downtown Tulsa, (918) 585-2572 Tulsa, (918) 583-0032 11 Square Dance Hoedown, River Parks, (918) 582- 9-11 Festifall '88, Kerr Park, OKC, (405) 236-1426 005 1 9-11 Mayes County Fair, Pryor, (918) 825-3241 11, 15, 18, 22 Concert, Chamber Orchestra OKC, Christ the 10 Canna Festival, City Park, Carnegie, (405) 654- King Church, OKC, (405) 842-6683 2121 17 Lawton Philharmonic, Lawton, (405) 248-2001 10 Southwest Festival of the Arts, Means Park, 22 Classics Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, Weatherford, (405) 772-7744 Performing Arts Center, Tulsa. (918) 584-2533 10-11 Arts and Crafts Festival, Oologah, (918) 443-2790 27 Chamber Soloists of America, Seretean Center, 15-18 Fiesta '88, Williams Green, Tulsa, (918) 622-8438 Stillwater, (405) 624-6137 15-18 Jubilation, Mohawk Park, Tulsa, (918) 592-7877 30, Oct. 1-2 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Cimarron 16-Oct. 2 State Fair of Oklahoma, State Fairgrounds, OKC, Circuit Opera Co., Casady Theater, OKC, (405) (405) 948-6700 364-8962 16-18 Rogers County Fair, Claremore, (918) 341-2736 OCTOBER 17 Calf Fry Festival and Cook-off, Vinita, (918) 256- 1 Jazz singer Nancy Wilson, Tulsa Philharmonic 7803 Pops Concert, Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, 17-18 Fall Festival of the Arts, Civic Center, Elk City (918) 584-2533 (405) 225-0207 7-9 Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Performing Arts Center. 23-25 Pelican Festival, Community Center, Grove, (918) Tulsa, (918) 585-2575 786-2289 9 Organ Concert by Almut Rossler, Scottish Rite 23-25 Indian Summer '88 Festival, Bartlesville Masonic Temple, Guthrie, (405) 282-7242 Community Center, (918) 336-0095 20 Flutist Ransom Wilson, Tulsa Philharmonic, 24 Pilot Club Chili Cook-off, Lake Ponca Park, Ponca Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, (918) 584-2533 City, (405) 767-8888 21-22 Ballet Oklahoma, Civic Center Music Hall, OKC, 24 Fallfest '88. Antlers, (405) 298-3338 (405) 843-9898

46 Oklahoma TODAY 22 Vienna Choir Boys, Scottish Rite Masonic 29-30 Osage Steer Roping Finals, Lazy E Arena, Temple, Guthrie, (405) 282-7242 Guthrie, 1-800-234-3393 25 Montreux Band, Seretean Center, Stillwater, (405) 30-Nov. 6 World Championship Appaloosa Horse Show, 624-6137 OKC State Fairgrounds, OKC, (405) 278-8912 29 Ohio Top Brass and the Bartlesville Choral Society, Community Center, Bartlesville, (918) 337-2787 SPECIAL EVENTS INDIAN EVENTSI I 1-4 10th World Series of Fiddling, Powderhorn Park, Langley, (405) 732-3964 SEPTEMBER 2-5 Antique Airplane Fly-In, Bartlesville Municipal 1-5 Cherokee National Holiday, Cherokee Heritage Airport, (918) 336-0095 Center, Tahlequah, (918) 456-3742 5 Krebs Terrapin Derby, American Legion Ballpark, 2-4 Int'l Pow Wow, 101 Ranch Rodeo Grounds, Ponca Krebs, (918) 426-4992 City, (405) 767-8888 5 KRMG Great Raft Race, Arkansas River, Tulsa, 2-5 Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festivities, Capitol (918) 582-0051 Grounds, Tuskahoma, (405) 924-8280 10-11 Sport, Boat and Travel Show, Mannford, (918) OCTOBER 865-2000 8-9 Black Leggins Ceremonial, Indian City USA, 11 Olde Tyme Picnic in the Park, Nicoma Park, (405) Anadarko, (405) 247-6651 769-6635 16-18 Quilt Show and Retreat, Fin and Feather Lodge, Gore, (918) 487-5148 17 Run of '93. Cherokee, (405) 596-3053 KUUEU E ;, 17 Old Settlers Celebration, downtown Wakita, (405) a nunm v EN? 594-2200 SEPTEMBER 17 Pioneer Day, Cleveland, (918) 358-2131 2-3 Prison Rodeo, OK State Prison, McAlester, (918) 17 Great Land Rush Bicycle Race, Enid, (405) 249- 423-2550 4371 2-3 Talihina Roundup Club Jr. Rodeo, Talihina, (918) 17-18 Guthrie Road Celebration, Historic District, 567-3434 Guthrie, (405) 282-1947 3-5 PRCA Rodeo of Champions, Elk City, (405) 225- 18 Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats and Magicians, 0207 McMahon Memorial Auditorium, Lawton, 3-5 Buckskin Horse Show, Claremore, (918) 341-5045 (405) 248-8055 5 Labor Day Pasture Roping, Claremore, (918) 789- 24 Bass Tournament, Pryor, (918) 825-0157 2408 29 Shanghai Acrobats and Magicians, Scottish Rite 8-10 Barnes and Son Open Rodeo, Muskogee, (918) Masonic Temple, Guthrie, (405) 282-7242 682-2401 OCTOBER 8-10 Women's Nat'l Finals Rodeo, Lazy E Arena, 6-30 OK Arts Institute, Quartz Mountain, Lone Wolf, Guthrie, 1-800-234-3393 (405) 842-0890 8-10 Great Plains Stampede PRCA Rodeo, Altus, (405) 8 Fall Celebration Fish Fry, Muskogee, (918) 682- 482-0210 6602 9-11 Shrine Rodeo, Garfield County Fairgrounds, Enid, 8 Woolaroc Run, Woolaroc Ranch, Bartlesville, (918) (405) 242-3003 336-0095 10-1 1 Pinto Horse Show, Expo Square, Tulsa, (918) 744- 8-9 Hot Air Balloon Race and Arts and Crafts Show. 1113 Muskogee, (918) 683-1212 11 Mayes County Championship Roping, Pryor, (918) 16 Heritage Hills House Tour, OKC, (405) 528-2559 865-1921 21-31 Ghost and Goblins Tour, Alabaster Caverns State 17-18 AHSAS Nat'l Dressage Championships, Expo Park, Freedom, (405) 621-3381 Center, Shawnee. (405) 751-1049 28-31 Phantom Express, River City Park and Rodeo 18 Heart of OK Barrel Racing, Expo Center, Grounds, Sand Springs, (918) 245-2248 Shawnee, (405) 279-2321 29 Tulsa Run. downtown Tulsa, (918) 588-2431 OCTOBER 31 Halloween Carnival, Muskogee. (918) 682-2401 7-9 World's Richest Roping, Claremore, (918) 789- 31 Halloween Costume Breakfast. Claremore. (918) 2408 341-2818 10-16 Grand Nat'l and World Championship Morgan 31 Haunt the Zoo, OKC Zoological Park, OKC. (405) Horse Show, OK State Fairgrounds, OKC, (405) 424-3344 278-8912 17-22 Wrangler Cutting, Lazy E Arena, Guthrie, 1-800- 234-3393 Although the information in this calendar is current, dates and 29-30 Horse Show, Expo 'quare, (918) details can change without notice. Please check in advance 744-1 113 before attending any event.

September-October 1988 47